Barry Cooper posted this line the other day:
“It’s interesting, the left wing trolls have been very quiet the last two weeks. The three weeks prior I was inundated with vile insults and name calling almost by the minute. I’m talking about hundreds of attacks daily. Mostly they were paid operatives having no knowledge and very little intelligence to argue about anything. Now they are silent. Obviously the money for the year ran out. I suspect they will return after the first.” Facebook
And yeah, I saw it. I also laughed, because it’s the oldest move in the internet playbook: when the heat shows up, pretend it’s not real people. It’s “paid operatives.” It’s “bots.” It’s “the deep state.” It’s always somebody else.
But here’s the thing. Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.
If the comments went quiet because you hit “block,” then no, Barry, the money didn’t run out. Your tolerance did.
Quick context for anyone new here
Barry Cooper is a former Texas narcotics officer turned drug war critic and media figure. A lot of people first knew him from KopBusters and later from the “Never Get Busted” brand, where he teaches people how police actually operate in drug cases. Wikipedia
Whatever you think of him today, there’s no denying his story has been a thing for a long time. It’s even been packaged into a documentary project that made the Sundance orbit. Screen Australia
So when somebody like that starts whining about “left wing trolls” going quiet, while longtime supporters are getting blocked, I’m going to call it what it looks like: narrative control.
What I said back, and what I’m not going to pretend anymore
I replied on his page. And like most replies that don’t kiss the ring, it’ll probably get deleted.
My point was simple:
You censored comments.
You blocked people, including supporters.
You tried to reframe the backlash as a “paid troll” op.
You drew a loyalty line in the sand: pick you, or pick Candace Owens.
And I picked Candace.
Not because Candace is perfect. She’s not. She’s controversial, she’s loud, and she’s currently at the center of a bunch of infighting on the right. The Washington Post
But you know what? None of that matters as much as the principle.
I’m not joining anybody’s little online church where disagreement gets you excommunicated.
The “paid operatives” excuse is a way to avoid looking in the mirror
Let’s be real.
Yes, paid trolling exists. So do bot networks. So do coordinated attacks. Politics and online media are full of that junk. Everybody with a following deals with it.
But when you blame everything on “paid operatives,” you get to avoid the uncomfortable possibility that real humans are mad at you for real reasons.
It’s like when the state destroys the currency and then tells you inflation is caused by “greedy businesses.” Inflation is the printer. Always has been. Same glass, less kick.
In this case, the printer is censorship.
If your comment section looks calmer after you block a bunch of critics, that’s not “the trolls went away.” That’s you turning the lights off and declaring the roaches disappeared.
Censorship is still censorship, even when your side does it
Liberty people used to understand something basic:
Free speech isn’t a vibe. It’s a rule.
When you build your brand on resisting abusive authority, then turn around and start running your own little speech police operation, you don’t get to act shocked when people notice.
Silencing speech is like putting duct tape over a smoke alarm. The fire still burns, you just can’t hear the warning.
And the warning here is obvious: your audience is not “left wing trolls.” It’s your own base saying, “what happened to you?”
The loyalty test is the real tell
Here’s where the whole thing gets disgusting.
The moment you tell your audience “it’s me or her,” you’ve stopped being an educator and started being a cult leader.
That’s not activism. That’s brand protection.
It’s the same move politicians pull when they say, “if you don’t support this bill, you don’t support the troops.” It’s emotional blackmail dressed up like virtue.
Candace Owens is not my pope. Barry Cooper is not my pope either.
I don’t “choose” media personalities. I listen, I evaluate, and I keep moving. Voluntary exchange, remember? If your product sucks, I stop buying it.
Why this matters beyond one internet fight
A lot of you are tired. I get it.
The regime lies.
Corporate press launders those lies.
The tech platforms throttle and censor.
And then the alternative media, the people who swear they’re different, start copying the same control freak tactics.
That’s the part that should scare you.
Because the state doesn’t just censor with laws. It censors with culture. It trains people to believe that the solution to bad speech is less speech.
And once that virus gets into the “freedom” world, we start eating our own.
Not because we’re principled, but because we’re petty.
I’m not saying Barry can’t moderate his page
Before the comment section fills up with the “it’s his page, he can do what he wants” crowd, let me beat you to it:
Yes. He can.
Property rights apply online too. You don’t have a human right to post on somebody’s Facebook wall.
But here’s the other half of that sentence that people conveniently skip:
And I can call him a hypocrite for how he’s doing it.
If you claim you’re under attack by “paid operatives,” while quietly blocking dissent and purging supporters, you’re manipulating your audience. That’s not moderation. That’s message management.
Own it, or stop pretending you’re the victim.
A warning for the rest of us: stop outsourcing your spine
This is where I zoom out.
Liberty-minded people have a bad habit of turning commentators into replacement politicians. Same dependency, different costume.
We’re not supposed to be followers. We’re supposed to be adults.
So here’s a simple checklist I use now, and you should too:
If someone demands loyalty, walk.
If someone frames all criticism as enemy action, be suspicious.
If someone can’t handle questions, don’t trust their answers.
If someone blocks supporters for disagreeing, they’re not building a movement, they’re building a moat.
Mises didn’t ask you to pick a team. Rothbard didn’t ask you to worship a personality. Spooner didn’t write “No Treason” so you could go get bossed around by a YouTuber.
The solution is boring, but it works
Want to reduce this kind of drama and control?
Do what the state hates: decentralize.
Follow people across platforms, not just one walled garden.
Build email lists and direct relationships.
Support creators directly when they earn it.
And stop treating social media like it’s a public square. It’s a mall. The security guard can throw you out.
If your entire movement lives inside Facebook comment sections, you don’t have a movement. You have a permission slip.
Closing thought
I’m grateful for what Barry did back in the day. Exposing bad cops and teaching people how the system works matters. The Texas Observer
But I’m not interested in watching a guy who built a brand on “never get busted” turn into “never get questioned.”
If you’re going to claim you’re pro-freedom, act like it when it costs you something, like a little ego.
Because when you start censoring your own supporters, don’t blame “paid operatives” when the room gets quiet.
Blame the mirror.
Ryan “Dickie” Thompson
Disruptarian.com
Sources
Barry Cooper Facebook post containing the quote|https://www.facebook.com/barry.cooper.716/photos/d41d8cd9/10229487570476691/
Barry Cooper (activist) Wikipedia|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Cooper_%28activist%29
Barry Cooper Videos (Texas Observer)|https://www.texasobserver.org/barry-cooper-videos/
‘Drug war insurgent’ flees U.S. claiming death threats (Progressive.org)|https://progressive.org/latest/drug-war-insurgent-flees-u.s.-claiming-death-threats/
Screen Australia production funding announcement mentioning Never Get Busted!|https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2023/05-04-eight-documentaries-production-funding
Sundance 2025 episodic coverage mentioning Never Get Busted! (RogerEbert.com)|https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/sundance-2025-big-swings-pay-off-in-the-episodic-program
Never Get Busted! teaser (IF Magazine)|https://if.com.au/never-get-busted-teaser/
Candace Owens infighting context (Washington Post)|https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/16/candace-owens-maga-conspiracy-charlie-kirk/
My account of the Barry-Candace blowup (Disruptarian Facebook post)|https://www.facebook.com/disruptariancom/posts/pfbid02szYt3maH6bYcLL7efrUub49kaaDPBX1ETQiXVvSyi1LJiN7uGC1rvWfr9cpvTFhzl
Proof of Barry Cooper's censorship
And the only paid bots that I can find is that Barry Cooper's subscribers are at least 60% fake.
He has 131k subscribers on youtube. Yet, he has only a 0.05% engagement rate.
He apparently uploads an average of one video per week, and yet with 131,000 subs, he only gets an average of 481 views on his videos each week.
All of this points to very very high rate of bot subscribers, rather than authentic growth.
Barry Cooper's fake engagement on Never get Busted youtube channel
Barry Cooper's fake engagement on Never get Busted youtube channel
Spun Web Technology SMART SEO
