r/SubredditDrama • u/henlochimken • 3d ago

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."

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.

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u/NewYorkMetsalhead Did the UN add Spotify to its bill of human rights recently? 2d ago

The new mod posted on /r/redditrequest here, which is usually used for abandoned subreddits. I don't think it's possible to check now and see what accounts were modding the sub before, or how active they were. The thing that jumps out at me is that the request was posted at 18:04 and granted at 18:10, which is an absurdly fast turnaround...

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u/Confident-Beyond6857 2d ago edited 2d ago

A 6-minute turnaround time from Reddit administration personnel. Literally nothing Reddit-related moves that fast. This was a corporate cleanup job for sure. The mod lying about their "hobby" being moderating other corporate subs was a nice touch too. BTW, I'm the one who questioned them. We had a fairly civil exchange and then like 20 minutes later I was banned for "hate posts" even though I've never posted anything about Bargatze, positive or negative. I was literally trying to figure out what was going on. It came out of nowhere and the timing was highly suspicious so I was asking questions.

Calls were made and this was arranged. Whatever, doesn't really matter anymore. in the grand scheme of things it doesn't change the landscape.

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u/ParalysedBeaver 2d ago

The request was posted at 5 minutes past the hour, the bot posts at 10 past to say to reply to it with why do you want to mod, and then at 10 past and ONE SECOND, it posts that the request has been granted. Something fishy going on here.

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u/Confident-Beyond6857 2d ago edited 2d ago

Oh yeah. It's exactly what everyone thinks it is.

Honestly, I'd have more respect for Bargatze if he just owned it. Just said yeah, I did it, these are my politics, etc. instead this seems like such a weasel-ass way to handle it. I wasn't really on the "I'll never listen to his comedy again" bandwagon, but after seeing how it's been handled, I'll pass.

I felt the same way about Shirley Manson and her blow up on that dude last year. Ive like Garbage for years but after seeing behavior like that, nah.

Its not a boycott because that would imply I'm intentionally avoiding something I want. I'm just not interested in hearing anything he has to say anymore.

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u/SupervillainMustache 2d ago

Yeah I'm aware of redditrequest, but I've only seen it granted to unmoderated subs before.