As a young adult, my life has been overrun with Leftist ideologies.
While I was a student at UCLA, I had two Communist Manifestos chucked at my head — literally. Yes, you read that correctly.
During my senior year, I dropped out of my Kappa Delta sorority chapter after they asked us to publicly condemn one of our alums, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, after she was nominated to the court by President Trump.
By the time I graduated in March of 2021, I had lost countless friends because I spoke out against the Black Lives Matter organization and refused to be silent about my political beliefs.
However, the experience of having Leftist ideals forced on me didn’t stop with my graduation. Instead of facing indoctrination from my professors and peers, it was soon coming from pop culture, Hollywood productions, and social media, all institutions driven by aggressive woke mentalities. After a decade-long career as a professional child actress, it’s a world I know well.
I spent my older teen years holding my tongue while my Hollywood coworkers gushed about big government, attacked anyone to the Right of raging socialism, and shunned me every time I posted a picture with a gun. It was exhausting.
Last year, I finally hit my breaking point and chose to turn my attention away from entertainment. It was everything I had lived and breathed since I was eight years old, but I knew I could no longer work in an industry where my values were attacked on a daily basis.
While I could withstand the occasional snide comment, I could not withstand every project I worked on being infused with woke ideals and fueled by identity politics. Because whether we’re conscious of it or not, Hollywood and entertainment informs and directs our cultural trends. We spend hours upon hours watching Netflix, scrolling on Tiktok, and binging YouTube videos, and with those fields being dominated by the Left, it is no surprise that my generation is overwhelmingly Liberal.
It’s for that very reason that I walked away from Hollywood and instead launched my new show with the Daily Wire. Because we cannot and will not take back the culture until we actually engage with the culture.
As a young person on the Right, I know firsthand how starved we are of entertainment that isn’t Leftist propaganda or pure Conservative commentary, and in the week since we premiered The Comments Section, that has only been reaffirmed. Already, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and while our viewership dips into almost every age demographic, I’ve received hundreds of comments from my Gen Z peers thanking us for creating something that’s both Right-leaning and authentically timely for our generation.
And while that was always the goal, the messages that have stood out to me the most are those from desperate parents and grandparents who are thrilled and relieved that Daily Wire has created something that is hooking the young people in their lives.
So, while my transition hasn’t been an easy one, I would do it all again. Every hostile remark, lost friend, and hateful message has been worth it. Because if we don’t fight to create new entertainment and media that is in line with our values — especially for my younger generation, those forgotten by our cultural institutions will never have a voice.
It’s only fitting that in a world where social media is dominated and infiltrated with woke propaganda, we’re creating something different. Join us.
It’s time to carve out our space in social media entertainment, and we’re just getting started.
Brett Cooper is the Daily Wire’s newest personality and host of The Comments Section. She’s a professional actress turned political commentator — she previously contributed to the Foundation for Economic Education, Young Americans for Liberty, and PragerU.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.