I’ll be interested to read the other comments when I have the time/attention span.
It could just be the part of the country where I live (i.e. deeply conservative rural south), but everybody I know who identifies as a Libertarian (going to hand wave over the reality of whether the pedants and purists would agree) is basically what’s termed as “Republican-lite” or “Conservative-lite” aka right-wing.
If I tell you I’m a Libertarian, but my voting record is such that I’ve essentially only voted for Republican candidates in all prominent elections in the past decade (or sometimes more) and/or the majority of my political speech is in opposition to Democratic politicians and liberal policies, what does that suggest?
If I identify as a vegan but I like to eat meat with every meal, am I really a vegan?
For me personally it’s the “almost nothing else” that went into the dishwasher with the plunger that truly pushed the narrative into holy shit territory.