Why Do Libertarians Defend Autocrats?

I've wondered this, too. My answer has always been: b/c many "libertarians" I've met are (as a genuinely libertarian friend of mine once put it) crypto-conservatives.

Of course this redirects our attention to the question "why have American conservatives been so eager to support Autocrats?" There my answer has usually been "because they like them, and in some cases envy and want to be them." But also "because many conservatives really don't value freedom all that much; what they value in this vicinity is capitalism." Much of the fervent anti-communism of the right was not motivated by a love of freedom, but by a love of capitalism. Of course the latter has a non-trivial relationship to the former...but they are largely separable.