First and foremost, legality is not morality.
This means laws are not the same as morals. Many laws that are legal are also extremely immoral. KYC and AML laws are, in our opinion, extremely immoral. It’s something big government desperately conceals from you.
Despite that, the system has no way for moral individuals to advocate for the peaceful, willful violation of laws in order to preserve their natural born rights. It doesn’t want you engaging in civil disobedience even though it’s your right to do so. Thus, we cannot hold laws up as arbiters of what’s right and wrong.
This means the content of this article will NOT be condoning anyone’s attempt to violate laws which blatantly violate your rights. We do, however, condone your free will, your ability to think for yourself, and act in whatever way you think is right.
We will be analyzing KYC and AML through the context of your rights and we will see that they are blatant violations of your right to due process and of association.
People often claim we’re a society based on this mythical idea known as the “Rule of Law”. But what does it mean when laws are immoral and violate your rights? What recourse do moral people have under a system which enables, creates, and expands them faster than they can be successfully argued against in court?
Some Basics
AML stands for Anti-Money Laundering. It refers to a set of laws which outlaw your ability to move money for the purposes of securing your financial privacy. The government claims money-laundering is a illegal because it hides your finances from them. Thus, the laws assume you’re guilty of something suspicious.
KYC stands for Know Your Customer. It refers to a set of laws which force businesses to collect personal information or perform extensive background checks in order to do business. Thus, the laws assume you’re guilty of something suspicious.
The claim governments make in favor of AML and KYC is that they are important because people might do something bad like give money to terrorists or that bad actors will seek to do bad things.
Laws don’t care who you are, by the way, as they’re applied equally to innocent peaceful people as they are with people who commit immoral acts.
Out in the wild, you’ll encounter AML and KYC laws when you open, say, a brokerage account. They’ll collect everything from your state-issued ID’s, passports, utility bills to prove your address, credit history, known associations, biometrics, and more. If you try to buy a gun in some states they’ll implement KYC in the form of background checks.
The assumption in each case is that you’re guilty until proven innocent.
The Grinding away of Due Process
When it comes to law, due process is the idea that you are presumed innocent until you’re proven guilty. Without it, government can claim you’re guilty and may not allow fair treatment in justice.
Due process is about the presumption of innocence as a moral way to conduct justice. Meaning, if someone has been accused of something, the moral way to handle the accusation is to assume their innocence to ensure they aren’t unfairly treated during the proceedings. Government has a long history of assuming guilt and then denying the accused a fair shot to defend themselves.
What does this have to with KYC and AML laws?
A sharp reader would realize KYC and AML laws aren’t exactly accusing anyone of breaking a specific law, as what typically occurs in the justice system.
Instead, dear reader, it’s far more insidious.
The government is making it illegal for businesses to NOT engage in personal phishing expeditions. This means that businesses have to pry into your personal life and possibly report to the government all your personal information in order for them to prove you’re innocent of something nefarious otherwise they can be fined or go to jail.
Let me clarify that: A government mandated background check is a presumption of guilt of… something. They won’t know what you’re guilty of until you hand over your information.
It assumes you’ve done something wrong and they won’t allow you to engage in your natural right to engage in business until your innocence has been proven.
Government claims these laws are there to prevent things like terrorism financing or allowing terrorists to engage in business activities they don’t like.
From the perspective of government: you’re always guilty of financial crimes until proven innocent.
KYC laws collect your personal information.
AML laws collects both your personal and financial information.
Both are violations of your right to trade freely. They are immoral.
Your Natural Rights
Your rights come from birth (some say your Creator, others say nature, it doesn’t matter). Rights don’t come from government or society. The 9th Amendment reminds us of this.
You have a right to trade and associate with whomever you want, and you have a right to privacy- including financial privacy and anonymity.
Your right to privacy and anonymity means you have a right to pursue a secret life. This doesn’t mean a life to do nefarious things. It just means you have the right to live in secret. There’s nothing immoral or moral about it- it’s amoral.
You were born with this right.
This means whatever money you have is yours to conceal however you want from the prying eyes of others. This is your right to do.
I know how this sounds, but we’re not advocating for the violation of laws, we’re merely pointing out that you have a right to pursue financial privacy and government cannot violate that right unless they suspect you of doing something specific (yet they are violating them).
You also have a right to trade with whomever you want. It’s part of the freedom of association you have that’s been successfully defended in court.
Government cannot prevent you from doing business with someone unless they suspect you of doing something specific.
You might be realizing now that AML and KYC are clear violations of your right to associate and your right to privacy- including financial privacy. And you’d be right.
It’s an end run around due process. They don’t have to accuse you of doing anything because you’re incriminating yourself the moment you subject yourself to KYC and AML laws. All they have to do is wait for you provide them with the information necessary to build a case against you. In case you didn’t realize it, this is how taxation also works.
You have a right to remain silent. This protects you from self-incrimination.
That’s part of why these laws are so evil.
But why?
The Financial Panopticon
Since terroristic activities account for such a tiny percentage of all financial activities, why is everyone subjected to extensive background checks and data collection?
This is pretty easy to understand. We live in a surveillance state and data collection is power. It’s the reason you stand in line and get groped by the TSA- it’s designed to make you comfortable with constant privacy violations. It’s designed to make you live in a constant state of fear. It’s designed to demoralize you.
The reasons they give to force businesses to assume your guilt is just cover for the truth- they want to know everything you do, buy, and ultimately think so as to hold it against you should they need to.
It’s a way to spy on you via your finances and your household.
Here’s some context. A criminal might case your house before they rob you. They engage in information gathering, looking for weaknesses in the security or seek evidence that you’re concealing valuable things.
The difference with KYC/AML laws is that you’re willingly handing over your information to the criminals- I mean… government- when they ask for it.
They’re collecting all the data they need and if you ever say or do something they don’t like, they’ll happily do a deep dive into your personal data to find something they can use against you.
People are less likely to do things the government doesn’t like when they know Big Brother is watching.
This is why CBDC’s (Central Bank Digital Currencies) are a big deal to them. This is why government is cracking down on coin mixing software (software which enhances the privacy of cryptocurrencies). This is why they ask for all your personal information and wait for the background check to clear when all you want to do is trade Dogecoin. This is why bitcoin is the most surveilled crypto asset- it’s a venerable surveillance coin.
They need to control you.
In the years since Snowden’s surveillance revelations, data collection and KYC/AML laws have also expanded.
KYC and AML isn’t about protecting you. They’re about controlling you.
The Future of Big Government
The future of your rights is in your hands. Nothing anyone has done in the past 20 years has shrank the size of the surveillance state. Nothing. It’s only gotten worse. It’s only gotten bigger. Voting hasn’t helped. Protesting hasn’t helped. Your politicians haven’t helped. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights haven’t helped- one could argue that they’ve been powerless to stop it.
I don’t have any good news or optimism that this is going to change any time soon. This article is purely for educational purposes. I believe that educating people to the reality of their situation is the first step toward discovering a real solution.
So what can we do?
Personally, I don’t have any ideas which doesn’t involve violating laws. Maybe arresting politicians and tax collectors and holding citizen tribunals? Maybe educating the public?
But what I do know is what people have done throughout all of human history when government becomes a paranoid parasite.
They build and use parallel networks.
