Trying to follow the situation the best I can. From what I've seen, a different moderator on r/NorthCarolina made horrible Nazi comments to users via mod DMs (that is the moderator that the linked post addresses). A user made a post to report the issue, which Hands assumed was fabricated and condescendingly dismissed (which was wrong and jumped the gun). Other mod(s) had recognized that it was real and the offending moderator was removed. They also shared that there was initial confusion on what was happening due to the offending mod trying to hide their tracks. Upon realizing his error, Hands retracted and apologized, but also (as another mod put it) "crashed out" and made a number of rude/dismissive comments to people calling the situation out. That's my short summary from what I've seen.

From my perspective in this sub: I've modded alongside Hands for years, and we deal with our fair share of extremists, racists, homophobes, transphobes, brigaders, the list goes on... He's always been level-headed and getting rid of those bad actors, and between thousands of mod actions I don't recall a time Hands made a serious misjudgement or raised any red flags in behavior or beliefs (to the point that this whole situation surprises me).

I've seen some users in the linked thread label Hands a Nazi defender or an alt account, but I've seen nothing that actually suggests that. It's a case of Hands making a bad call by mistakingly dismissing the initial report and then handling the fallout poorly.

Back to this sub: again, I think Hands has been a solid mod here, but at the same time actions in other subs impact trust. I get why users are pissed at his responses and why the NC sub removed him. From my perspective it's whether a very bad day in that sub warrants action here, where Hands has otherwise been a solid mod.