I put as much effort in as you did. Calling Libertarianism equal to opportunism is about as bad faith of a take as calling mainline Democrats socialists. Reading that you're the type to say, "Russia didn't really practice communism" just made the cake that much sweeter.
I don’t care about what political party they belong to. Do they regularly argue to slash regulations on the basis of government=bad? Do they routinely try to convince people that technology companies should be in charge of social organization rather than the government?
Great, so sounds like we've found the actual culprit then. Technology companies and investors, despite their political affiliations, actually like a hands off environment.
Do you understand how that's a little different from your Libertarian strawman?
Wanting a hands off business environment automatically puts one and the same tendency as libertarianism, as a fellow traveller. Neoliberals, deregulator Reaganites/Thatcherites, Grover Norquist "starve the beast" types, etc. they're all adjacent to libertarians. Even Bill Clinton and the New Democrats are not that far from libertarianism, as they were comparatively fiscally conservative than earlier versions of the Democratic Party and pushed for financial deregulation and championed market-based solutions!
And even a cursory glance at the OpenSecrets list shows that the two party dichotomy is a false one. For instance, Marc Andreessen at least nominally supported Romney in 2012, then Carly Fiorina in 2016. Does that sound like a far leftist who is against libertarian ideals?
Libertarian is not just a political party. It’s a set of ideas and beliefs. VCs and founders in SV routinely espouse these beliefs and try to pull both major parties in their direction.
There are plenty of communists out there voting for democrats but that doesn’t make them not communists.
