Far-right media personality Ben Shapiro‘s been irritating Democrats from the fringes of political relevance for more than a decade now.
He doesn’t do much of actual significance, but his irksome hot takes and blatantly bigoted viewpoints stoke the same fires of fear, prejudice, and division that have led to a rise in extremism in the United States. Shapiro isn’t nearly vital enough to the far-right agenda to bear much guilt in the matter, but he’d love to change that.
Shapiro is also a familiar pest in the world of American politics. There are a million people just like him, echoing talking points to whomever will listen and working to be the most controversial, the most disliked, and thus the most relevant content creator out there.
They’re a dime a dozen, and the rise of a new — but painfully familiar — face on the far-right media scene has people pondering the Shapiro family. Brett Cooper doesn’t share a last name with the smug Daily Wire co-founder, but she does share his brown hair, average look, and passion for twisting the truth to suit her narrative.
Who is Brett Cooper?
Cooper is a rising star in the conservative world, where her fans flock to watch The Comments Section, her dedicated show intended to loop in a Gen-Z audience. Conservatives have long had a hard time luring in younger supporters, and they’re clearly hoping that, by highlighting a pretty young white girl, they’ll manage to bridge the divide.
Cooper’s channel is classic right-wing fare, as she works to mimic the look of a live-stream and chatters on about the exact same topics everyone else at Daily Wire makes their bread and butter. The only real differences between her and Shapiro himself come down to her age, gender, and the attempt to make her seem “hip” by framing her series as a live-stream, which its not.
Is Brett Cooper related to Ben Shapiro?
Just because they’re essentially the same person wrapped in different packaging doesn’t make Shapiro and Cooper part of the same family, however. While Ben Shapiro does have a sister with whom he shares plenty of outdated opinions, her name is not Brett. Its Abby, and she’s a can of worms all her own. Brett Cooper, despite her many similarities to Shapiro, actually does not appear to be related to the 40-year-old political commentator-turned rapper.
She does work with him, however. She got a gig over at the Daily Wire back in early 2022, and she’s been there ever since, regurgitating contentious talking points to get clicks and rally support from the increasingly Trumpian right side of the political aisle. She has yet to even reach the heights of once-popular conservative darlings like Tomi Lahren or Kaitlin Bennett, political provocateurs who, like Cooper, presented just the fresh-faced look the right needed. That is, until they said or did something unpopular, or got too old to offer up the “young” look they were hired for.
Cooper may not see her career follow a trajectory similar to Bennett or Lahren’s, but it seems likely. She feels like the 2024 repeat of that same tradition, propped up as a young, “relatable” puppet that’ll stay popular so long as she serves her purpose.