Thiel is not a libertarian. Look at actions, not words. The term libertarian has lost meaning and carries baggage now. I prefer using anarcho-capitalist or Austrian economist. Terms that show some specific attempt to understand the distinctions. You don't have to agree with everything Rothbard and Mises thought but at this point in political time if you don't at least know who they were and your personal philosophy doesn't root from their books then you are probably not (yet) a libertarian. They modernized Locke to explain the FED and fiat money and the U.N. We can't go back to pre-Revolutionary America to try again, we can only go forward with the 18th, 19th and 20th century events under our belt. I personally don't think I'd even want to recreate 1776 and prefer finding the version of libertarianism that deals with our technology realities instead of trying to mimic the life Amish keep alive.