.aolf-x{
--ink:#1B2A41; --ink-2:#2C3E5A; --gold:#C9A227; --gold-soft:#E9D9A6;
--paper:#FBFAF6; --line:#D9D4C5; --brick:#8C2F2B; --text:#23262B; --muted:#5B6270;
font-family:"Public Sans",system-ui,-apple-system,"Segoe UI",sans-serif;
color:var(--text); background:var(--paper); line-height:1.6; font-size:17px;
}
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.aolf-x img{max-width:100%;display:block}
.aolf-x a{color:inherit}
.aolf-x a:focus-visible,.aolf-x summary:focus-visible{outline:3px solid var(--gold);outline-offset:3px;border-radius:2px}
.aolf-x .wrap{max-width:1140px;margin:0 auto;padding:0 24px}
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.aolf-x p{margin:0 0 1em}
/* ---------- Hero ---------- */
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.aolf-x .lede a{color:#fff;text-decoration-color:var(--gold);text-underline-offset:3px}
.aolf-x .actions{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:14px;margin-top:34px}
.aolf-x .btn{display:inline-block;padding:14px 24px;border-radius:3px;font-weight:600;font-size:15px;text-decoration:none;transition:background .2s,color .2s}
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.aolf-x .btn-gold:hover{background:#DDB743}
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.aolf-x .btn-line:hover{border-color:#fff;background:rgba(255,255,255,.08)}
/* The cage: bars lift away from the portrait once, on load */
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.aolf-x .bars span{width:9px;background:linear-gradient(90deg,#0F1A2B,#3A4D6B 45%,#0F1A2B);transform-origin:top;animation:aolfLift 1.1s cubic-bezier(.7,0,.2,1) forwards}
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.aolf-x .bars span:nth-child(7){animation-delay:.98s}
@keyframes aolfLift{to{transform:scaleY(0)}}
.aolf-x .portrait figcaption{position:absolute;left:14px;right:14px;bottom:-34px;font-size:13px;color:#9FB0C8;font-style:italic;font-family:"Libre Caslon Text",serif}
@media (prefers-reduced-motion:reduce){.aolf-x .bars{display:none}}
/* ---------- Sections ---------- */
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.aolf-x .head{display:grid;grid-template-columns:280px 1fr;gap:48px;margin-bottom:48px}
.aolf-x .head h2{font-size:clamp(32px,4vw,48px)}
.aolf-x .head p{color:var(--muted);max-width:58ch;margin:6px 0 0}
/* Known for */
.aolf-x .known{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;display:grid;grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr;gap:0 56px}
.aolf-x .known li{padding:22px 0 22px 22px;border-top:1px solid var(--line);position:relative}
.aolf-x .known li::before{content:"";position:absolute;left:0;top:30px;width:3px;height:22px;background:var(--gold)}
.aolf-x .known li{font-size:16px;line-height:1.65}
.aolf-x .known em{font-family:"Libre Caslon Text",serif;color:var(--ink)}
.aolf-x .known a{text-decoration-color:var(--gold);text-underline-offset:3px}
/* Books */
.aolf-x .books{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(3,1fr);gap:48px 36px}
.aolf-x .book{text-decoration:none;display:flex;flex-direction:column}
.aolf-x .cover{aspect-ratio:2/3;max-width:240px;background:var(--ink);overflow:hidden;box-shadow:6px 6px 0 var(--gold-soft);transition:transform .25s}
.aolf-x .book:hover .cover{transform:translate(-3px,-3px)}
.aolf-x .cover img{width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover}
.aolf-x .cover.type{display:flex;flex-direction:column;justify-content:space-between;padding:18px;color:#fff}
.aolf-x .cover.type b{font-family:"Libre Caslon Display",serif;font-weight:400;font-size:21px;line-height:1.15}
.aolf-x .cover.type small{color:var(--gold-soft);font-size:12px}
.aolf-x .cover.brick{background:var(--brick)}
.aolf-x .book h3{font-size:18px;margin:22px 0 6px;font-family:"Libre Caslon Text",serif;font-weight:700}
.aolf-x .book p{font-size:14.5px;color:var(--muted);margin:0;flex:1}
.aolf-x .tag{align-self:flex-start;margin-top:12px;font-size:12.5px;font-weight:600;padding:3px 10px;border-radius:20px;background:#EFEBDD;color:var(--ink-2)}
.aolf-x .tag.soon{background:#F3E3E1;color:var(--brick)}
.aolf-x .proof{margin-top:56px;padding:26px 30px;background:#fff;border:1px solid var(--line);display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:12px 48px;align-items:baseline}
.aolf-x .proof b{font-family:"Libre Caslon Display",serif;font-weight:400;font-size:40px;color:var(--ink);margin-right:8px}
.aolf-x .proof span{color:var(--muted);font-size:15px}
.aolf-x .proof p{flex-basis:100%;margin:6px 0 0;font-size:14px;color:var(--muted)}
/* Talks */
.aolf-x .talks{display:grid;grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr;gap:20px}
.aolf-x .talk{background:#fff;border:1px solid var(--line);text-decoration:none;border-left:4px solid var(--ink);transition:border-color .2s}
.aolf-x .talk:hover{border-left-color:var(--gold)}
.aolf-x .talk small{color:var(--brick);font-weight:600;font-size:13.5px}
.aolf-x .talk h3{font-family:"Libre Caslon Text",serif;font-weight:700;font-size:20px;margin:6px 0 8px}
.aolf-x .talk p{margin:0;color:var(--muted);font-size:15px}
/* Closing */
.aolf-x .closing{background:var(--ink);color:#DCE2EC;padding:80px 0}
.aolf-x .closing .wrap{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:32px}
.aolf-x .closing h2{color:#fff;font-size:clamp(30px,3.6vw,44px);max-width:18ch}
.aolf-x .closing p{max-width:52ch;margin:12px 0 0}
@media (max-width:980px){
.aolf-x .hero .wrap{grid-template-columns:1fr;gap:64px;padding-top:64px}
.aolf-x .portrait{max-width:420px}
.aolf-x .head{grid-template-columns:1fr;gap:12px}
.aolf-x .books{grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr}
}
@media (max-width:760px){
.aolf-x .book-row{grid-template-columns:120px 1fr;gap:20px}
.aolf-x .book-row .go{display:none}
.aolf-x .book-row .cover{width:96px}
.aolf-x .book-row .cover.fit{width:120px}
}
@media (max-width:640px){
.aolf-x{font-size:16px}
.aolf-x section.block{padding:64px 0}
.aolf-x .known,.aolf-x .talks{grid-template-columns:1fr}
.aolf-x .books{grid-template-columns:1fr;gap:40px}
.aolf-x .proof b{font-size:32px}
}
/* Media kit heading (sits right above the Elementor Shortcode widget) */
.aolf-x .kit{padding:96px 0;border-bottom:1px solid var(--line)}
.aolf-x .kit h2{font-size:clamp(32px,4vw,48px)}
.aolf-x .kit p{color:var(--muted);margin:10px 0 0;max-width:58ch}
.aolf-x .flip{margin-top:32px;background:#fff;border:1px solid var(--line);padding:16px;min-height:420px}
.aolf-x .flip-fallback{font-size:14.5px;color:var(--muted);margin-top:14px}
.aolf-x .flip-fallback a{color:var(--ink);text-decoration-color:var(--gold);text-underline-offset:3px}
/* Book list */
.aolf-x .book-list{border-top:1px solid var(--line)}
.aolf-x .book-row{display:grid;grid-template-columns:170px 1fr auto;gap:32px;align-items:center;padding:28px 0;border-bottom:1px solid var(--line);text-decoration:none;transition:background .2s}
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.aolf-x .book-row .cover{width:120px;box-shadow:5px 5px 0 var(--gold-soft)}
.aolf-x .book-row:hover .cover{transform:translate(-3px,-3px)}
.aolf-x .book-row .cover.type{padding:12px}
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.aolf-x .cover.fit img{height:auto;object-fit:contain}
.aolf-x .book-row .cover{justify-self:center}
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.aolf-x .book-row .cover.type small{font-size:10px}
.aolf-x .book-row .tag{margin:0 0 10px}
.aolf-x .book-row h3{font-family:"Libre Caslon Display",serif;font-size:clamp(22px,2.4vw,30px);margin:0 0 6px}
.aolf-x .book-row p{margin:0;color:var(--muted);font-size:16px;max-width:60ch}
.aolf-x .book-row .go{font-weight:600;font-size:15px;color:var(--ink);white-space:nowrap;padding-right:8px;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-color:var(--gold);text-underline-offset:3px}
/* Talk thumbnails */
.aolf-x .talk{padding:0;display:flex;flex-direction:column}
.aolf-x .thumb{position:relative;aspect-ratio:16/9;background:var(--ink);overflow:hidden}
.aolf-x .thumb img{width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;transition:transform .4s}
.aolf-x .talk:hover .thumb img{transform:scale(1.04)}
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.aolf-x .play::after{content:"";position:absolute;left:26px;top:20px;border-style:solid;border-width:12px 0 12px 19px;border-color:transparent transparent transparent #fff}
.aolf-x .t-body{padding:24px 28px 28px}
/* Bio body */
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/* Publications */
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.aolf-x .pub .txt{padding:22px 24px 26px;display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex:1}
.aolf-x .pub h3{font-family:"Libre Caslon Text",serif;font-weight:700;font-size:20px;margin-bottom:6px}
.aolf-x .pub p{color:var(--muted);font-size:15px;margin:0;flex:1}
.aolf-x .pub .go{margin-top:16px;font-weight:600;font-size:15px;color:var(--ink);text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-color:var(--gold);text-underline-offset:3px}
@media (max-width:980px){.aolf-x .pubs{grid-template-columns:1fr}}
Etienne de la Boetie2
Author, speaker & activist
To see the cage is to leave it.
About Etienne de la Boetie2
Etienne de la Boetie2 is the founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation , and the editor of Voluntaryist.News , our daily survey of the best of the alternative media from a voluntaryist perspective, and Five Meme Friday , which delivers hard-hitting voluntaryist memes and the best of the alternative media. He is an internationally recognized expert and speaker on voluntaryism and government illegitimacy, criminality and corruption. His original writings and research can be found at ArtOfLiberty.Foundation .
He is the author of multiple books exposing the illegitimacy and criminality of government including:
Mr. Boetie2 has two upcoming books:
Books
Three published books and two on the way.
Mr. Boetie2 is known for
Ideas and projects that have been adopted across the liberty and truth movements.
Popularizing describing “government” as a technique of organized crime and/or inter-generational organized crime used to rob and control populations that has been adopted by other voices within the liberty and truth movements.
Exposing “The Greatest Theft in Human History” and calculating the total cost of monopoly “government” to the typical American from the theft of inflation, confiscatory taxation and Social Security underpayment through CPI manipulation with his book: The Greatest Theft in Human History – How the Banks and “Government” Will Steal at Least $1.40 MILLION from the Typical Worker… “Legally”
Exposing and cataloging a variety of unethically manipulative techniques the “government” is using in their mandatory schools, affiliated scouting program, police/military training, and through propaganda secretly added to movies and television programming with his book: To See the Cage Is to Leave It – 25 Techniques the Few Use to Control the Many
Better defining the voluntaryist case for the illegitimacy and criminality of “government” and making it scholarly and defensible with his upcoming book: Organized Crime Theory (OCT) – The Surprisingly Scholarly and Well-Referenced Thesis that “Government” is Intergenerational Organized Crime
Using and popularizing visualizations to make the secret connections between the monopoly media, the CIA/intelligence agencies, and front groups like the Council on Foreign Relations, World Economic Forum, and Bilderberg group that were invisible, now visible .
Exposing the playbook of surreptitious techniques the “government” and monopoly media use to indoctrinate the belief in having a “government” into the population in his book “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!
Exposing how the definition of the word “anarchy” was changed to “chaos and dystopia” by the Safra banking family who bought Encyclopedia Britannica and the Merriam-Webster dictionary and installed Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, on the Editorial Board of Advisors .
Encouraging peaceful anarchists, anarcho-capitalists, and other supporters of a Stateless society to “rebrand” as Voluntaryists which gives the movement a “green field” opportunity to explain how a world without “government” would produce more harmony and prosperity for all.
Founding the THICKREDLINE Project which encourages sheriffs, police chiefs, deputies, and officers to say: NO! collectively to victimless crimes, which would restore respect to the profession until a complete privatization of monopoly policing can be achieved.
Created the repository “Government”, Media and Academia Exposed!
Writing Solving Covid – The Covid 19, Eugenics, Vaccine/Drug Scam Timeline The Covid-19 Suspects and Their Ties to Eugenics and Population Control/Reduction
Founding the Liberty on the Rocks – Sedona Conference – 2023 Conference Archive – 2024 Conference Details
Talks & interviews
Speeches with slides, transcripts and references, plus long-form conversations.
Publications
Where to find Etienne’s original writing, research and daily curation.
