The offending post: Little country boy trying his hand. How'd I do with spaghetti and meatballs?:
Frick that fake tilt shift, who thinks it looks good? 75% of the picture is blurred. I also hate the title, but that's not why we're here.
The top comment:
Good but not Italian, we don't put meatballs on spaghetti, that's american [+81]
So you're telling me that in the entire history of the nation of Italy, no one has ever put a meatball on top of spaghetti? [+4]
We first eat pasta, then as the second plate we eat meatballs [+1]#
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. So basically if you have two Italian foods and you eat them separately, it's Italian. But if you put them on the same plate it's not Italian. Like I said, dumbest thing I've ever heard. [+1]
Well my nonna used to make spaghetti and meatballs ...
Death to all nonna-posters
you can do whatever you want with your food, but it's not Italian. [-1]
The gatekeeping in this sub is off the charts. [+1]
Enter /r/iamveryculinary
Did somebody say "gatekeeping" in a food subreddit? /r/iamveryculinary's monitoring dashboard lights up like a Christmas Tree and it gets reposted there: Someone posted meatballs in the Italian sub. The whole thread is bickering and probably unseen gesturing.
As always the comments are full of hilarity, these really are witty redditors:
If an Italian makes a ball out of meat, they die instantly.
No, the spontaneous combustion only happens when the meatballs touch pasta.
Hot take: if we subtract all the dishes that get eliminated by that sub as "not Italian," Italian cuisine would not be voted the most popular cuisine in the world any more
Where would Italian cuisine be without hot pockets and the Little Caesars lunchtime special?
My hot take is that I don't think Italians do themselves any favors by hyping up Authentic Italian Cuisine(tm) so much. I've been to Italy and I was actually mildly disappointed by the food there at first, I think because it was so ridiculously hyped up in my head.
I'd love to see this Redditor's holiday pictures 
Wait until you see all the mean comments I get for my perfectly dark and precisely reproducible roux for gumbo. The Cajuns go beserk when I say I made it in the microwave instead of wasting 30 minutes stirring it on the stove like their memaw, lol. This is, of course, after they've tasted it and liked it.
This post is sponsored by this week's anti-gatekeeping campaigner @Not_a_R-slur. I'd like to thank
@Lappland for his weeks of dutiful service and I wish him a happy retirement.
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Here's what I don't get about all the crying over gatekeeping.
They always act like authenticity “doesn't matter”, and that's why gatekeeping is bad. But if it doesn't matter, then why do they still whine about people who think it does? Obviously, there is some value they assign to authenticity, otherwise they wouldn't try showing off their food on the Italian food sub.
Their whiny reaction to gatekeeping is because deep down they know their food isn't authentic and it bothers them. And rather than learn like from this experience they double down and run to their hug box.
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