The COVID crisis was the great libertarian purge
The COVID crisis tested personal integrity. And no group was more exposed than the so-called “libertarians” who sank to a new low.
For years, they preached about bodily autonomy, decentralization, and resistance to tyranny. But when the state dropped the hammer through lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine coercion, many of those same voices went silent… or worse, complied.
The pandemic revealed the fake libertarians in the room.
Liberty in theory vs. liberty in action
Real libertarians stood firm when it mattered. They refused to mask up, opposed lockdowns without qualifiers, said no to coerced jabs, and didn’t flinch when called “grandma killers.”
Fake libertarians? They said, “Well, I disagreed, but I still wore the mask so I wouldn’t upset anyone.”
Or, “Because I had to.”
Translation: You were okay with the state forcing you into submission, so long as it was polite. That’s not libertarianism; that’s called cowardice.
“I had no choice” is a weak excuse and no libertarian ethic
Let’s be clear: liberty has a cost. If your convictions only exist when it’s comfortable, they’re cosplay masked as convictions.
If you wore the mask because it was a state mandate while still claiming to support bodily autonomy, you sold your values for a paycheck and your soul to the devil.
If you got the jab because you wanted to travel or keep your job but called yourself “anti-mandate,” you were part of the machine.
Real libertarians knew compliance was complicity. Fake ones thought wearing a Gadsden flag pin on their backpack made up for wearing a mask on their face.
Newsflash. It didn’t.
The market of integrity
One of the most libertarian principles is skin in the game. The idea that people should bear the cost of their choices, and that voluntary action trumps coercion.
But COVID revealed something deeper: Most “libertarians” had no intention of living what they preached. They wanted the label, the aesthetic, and the edgy takes on Reddit. But not the burden of real-world consequences.
In that sense, COVID created a free market for authenticity. And guess what? Many got priced out.
Don’t say you’re a dissident if you obeyed the dress code
If you covered your face “just to get through the store”…
If you kept quiet on social media to protect your brand…
If you nodded along at Zoom meetings while businesses shut down and kids were masked all day in classrooms…
…you weren’t resisting tyranny. You were reinforcing it.
You can’t oppose authoritarianism in theory and obey it in practice. Compliance was the currency of oppression, and you paid in full.
Real libertarians are the ones who refused
The real libertarians? You knew who they were. They:
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Walked into stores unmasked, knowing they’d get yelled at.
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Lost friends, jobs, and platforms, but didn’t back down.
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Spoke the truth when it wasn’t safe.
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Built alternatives: homeschools, parallel economies, dissident platforms.
They didn’t win popularity contests or build big brands during the COVID crisis, but they passed the ultimate test of libertarianism: They chose to preserve liberty when it cost them everything.
The COVID crisis taught us one lesson going forward
COVID was the defining moment of a generation and the libertarian movement. It exposed how many “freedom lovers” were just fair-weather rebels.
So next time you see someone waving a black-and-yellow flag, ask: Where were you when it mattered?
Because if they bent the knee when it counted, they don’t deserve to raise the banner now.
Liberty isn’t an idea. It’s a practice. And in the darkest hour, some in the movement failed.
But the few who stood tall? They’re the foundation of what comes next.
One book series featuring a society that would test libertarians
Do you know what would also test libertarians? An imperfect society run solely on voluntaryism. One that has maximum liberty and demands personal responsibility.
Well, one of my fiction series actually takes a look into that. In this young adult libertarian academy fantasy, Yote Diamondback attends the Arcane Elemental Academy, the series’ namesake. Arcane’s home is in Aurora Village, a town in the Northern Region of Etharia, the fictional nation Yote lives in.
That entire region is based on Bob Murphy’s book, Chaos Theory. And everything, including typical “public services” like law enforcement, fire, emergency services, etc., is all privatized.
Get a taste of that series with my prequel novella, Arcane Awakenings, and meet Yote for yourself. You might just like what you read if you’re a libertarian who held true to their worldview during the COVID crisis.
