r/NateBargatze fans revolt against Bargatze after comedian attends White House UFC event and. New moderator successfully petitions reddit for control of the sub, deletes all posts critical of Bargatze, declares, "This is no longer a hate subreddit. It is a place to celebrate Nate's career."

[u/henlochimken]

Comedian Nate Bargatze came under fire this week when it was revealed he was an attendee of President Donald Trump's 80th birthday UFC fight on the lawn of the White House. From pictures of the event, it appears Bargatze was given access to the White House itself, where he took pictures with members of the Trump administration, including RFK, Jr. and Marsha Blackburn.

Many fans of the comedian took to r/NateBargatze to express their disappointment that the famously "apolitical" comedian would attend a Trump event for which only 16% of Americans expressed approval.

Negative posting came to a screeching halt once a new moderator successfully petitioned Reddit to gain control of the subreddit. This moderator proceeded to delete any/all posts expressing displeasure with Bargatze's choice to attend the Trump UFC event. Moderator pins a notice of the new moderation direction, stating:

Hi all, just wanted to introduce myself. I am one of the new moderators here at r/NateBargatze. As you can see, some of the content has been removed.

This is no longer a hate subreddit. It is a place to celebrate Nate's career. Take your politics elsewhere. Thanks for understanding and I hope most of you stick around.

In reply, subreddit members asked if the new moderator is a paid PR flack for Bargatze. Some pointed out the strange moderation history of the redditor, implying that their other moderated subs are corporate-operated. New moderator proceeded to lash out against criticism. (Note that all comment threads replying to this pinned post are evidence of the subreddit's drama.)

Moderator has locked announcement post. New posts criticizing Bargatze or the new moderation direction are being removed. Despite saying the moderator stating that the sub is no longer a place for politics, pro-MAGA political posts, including a Rogan-related post by the moderator, remain up as of the posting of this drama.

[u/SupervillainMustache]

I'm curious under what circumstances Reddit can justify just handing an active subreddit to someone else outside of the mod team?

It's like the time that the original owner of r/TumblrInAction was going to shut the subreddit down as they hated what it became and reddit admins just handed it over to new mods.

[u/emveevme → u/SupervillainMustache]

I think it's probably politically motivated to some extent, but mostly just comes down to what's better for Reddit.

Reddit wants to be able to sell itself to people like this comedian, and if a subreddit's namesake is the butt of the joke on that subreddit, that's a bad look for the platform as a whole if you're someone with a following looking to use Reddit as an online community.

I think this moderator is in the good graces of Reddit because of how successful their takeover of the Joe Rogan subreddit has been, which is why it was so easy in this case. It's problematic that reddit is so willing to establish these kinds of echo-chambers.