Non-ideological, first-principle-reasoning thinkers may arrive at similar positions as other people (maybe even other “free-thinkers”), but they arrive there by blazing their own trail.
How can you be sure you’re ever really truly free-thinking? your thoughts and opinions are necessarily informed by and perturbed by what you read and hear and consume.
What’s the difference between someone who claims to make up their own mind and someone else who a free-thinker claims is being walked down a path without their consent?