I've read this sort of sentiment before. Here is what is confusing you. You are trying to over-simplify the complex political philosophy and worldview of a per

I've read this sort of sentiment before. Here is what is confusing you. You are trying to over-simplify the complex political philosophy and worldview of a person. To say that someone is a libertarian, for example, tells you almost nothing about that person. I am one of those "all models are wrong" kinds of people, but if you were trying to model the beliefs of a person, I would say the minimum questions are: 1. In the ideal state of the universe, how is humanity organized? 2. In the ideal state of the universe, how are the humans close to you organized? 3. How should one act to aid the transition towards the ideal state? To explain the individual you are describing who is anti-federal government but works for the federal government, there are a number of hypothetical people we can imagine. For example, one could believe that in the ideal state there is no organization of power at the global or federal government level (#1). But they could also believe that (#3) there is nothing an individual can do to speed up that transition in any meaningful way. They may be waiting for some cultural evolution of humanity or a game-changing shift in technology (e.g. unlimited free access to power). Or they could believe that the way to transition is by participating to ensure that it does as little evil as possible- or they could even be actively undermining the system from within. There are countless possibilities that could explain what you are describing. On the other hand, they could just be big fat hypocrites. ;)