Nate Bargatze and different “nice” white guys are the topic of ire in comic W. Kamau Bell‘s latest Substack essay, titled “It Is So Easy To Not Do This.” Bell rips Bargatze for attending the UFC Freedom 250 fights at Donald Trump‘s White House earlier this month. Bargatze, one of the country’s top-selling comedians, has confronted backlash and accusations of being MAGA after attending the occasion and taking pictures with Trump’s allies.
“Recently, some people who want us to think of them as ‘nice’ and ‘good’ have acted ‘surprised’ when the public has been surprised to see evidence of these ‘nice’ and ‘good’ people willingly associating with proud fascists,” Bell wrote earlier than itemizing out ideas for these individuals, beginning with the next: “Don’t be in a photo with fascists.”
Captioning a photograph of Bargatze on the UFC occasion with RFK Jr. and Cheryl Hines, Bell wrote: “Notorious nice and good guy comedian Nate Bargatze at the UFC Freedom 250 cage fights at the White House. If you ever saw me in a photo with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you can be guaranteed that my family was being threatened.”
Bell’s different ideas included: “The easiest way to not be photographed with fascists is to not go to places where fascists coagulate,” “If you do go to a place where fascists are coagulating, then you had better have a good reason… like a John Brown/’Inglorious Basterds’ good reason,” and “If you don’t have a good reason to be hanging out with fascists, then congratulations! You are now a member of Team Fascism.”
“No one cares how much you wanted to see the fights at the White House,” Bell continued. “The White House is currently registered as the home of a fascist… If you don’t want to be a member of Team Fascism, then after we see you with fascists, it is up to you to actively and immediately begin digging yourself out of the fascism hole and working your way back to the correct side of history. For the record, a statement from your rep or a social media post–or really anything short of immediate real world action doesn’t count.”
Bargatze has but to publicly converse on his attendance on the UFC Freedom 250 fights and the following backlash. His silence on the matter has additionally been called into question by numerous media shops. A supply near Bargatze stressed that the comic attended the occasion as a result of UFC is his “favorite sport,” which suggests his attendance was “not political.”
