These days, when people say the word “libertarian,” they are thinking of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and other tech bros who have tried to claim the label. Because of their support for Donald Trump, and particularly Musk’s recent actions as de facto president, libertarianism has gotten a rather bad reputation. This is unfortunate, since none of these men are actually libertarians.

Libertarians believe in free speech, freedom of association, property rights, equality before the law, non-violence (except in self-defense), free enterprise and free trade. Even if you don’t call yourself a libertarian, you probably agree with these principles. The tech bros, on the other hand, do not believe in any of these. They are violent authoritarians who merely pay lip service to freedom.

Let’s start with Musk, the most despicable of the lot. Long before he did the Nazi salute, it was painfully obvious that he was only cosplaying as a libertarian. While he claims to be a “free speech absolutist,” that commitment only extends to racists, antisemites and other bigots of the far right. He gladly censors tweets at the behest of authoritarian governments in Turkey, India and other countries. He suspends journalists who report stories he doesn’t like, and deletes Community Notes that debunk his lies. In China, his company sues reporters and customers for “defamation” when they criticize its shoddy vehicles. When a Redditor shared a post identifying his DOGE henchmen, Musk personally requested Reddit’s CEO to delete the thread.

Nor does he believe in freedom of association. When advertisers fled Twitter because they did not want their ads to appear alongside Nazi tweets, he sued them in order to bring them back to his platform. He has also threatened to sue Cybertruck buyers who try to resell those expensive dumpsters. This is a blatant violation of property rights, a core tenet of libertarianism. In fact, Musk’s entire fortune is built on government contracts and subsidies, and he continues to give himself more of those after his hostile government takeover. In a free market, he would have gone bankrupt because very few people want to buy what he is selling.

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