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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them)

@melanatedmagus.blacksky.app

2.5K followers 3.5K following 4.7K posts

36. Chicago. Sociology Master’s Student interested in how Nerd Culture and also Queer Culture works, but also their intersection. Also other stuff. Not angry enough to be a socialist, too 🫳🏾 to be a liberal. Gender is a scam.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · Nov 13

I’ve been thinking about how to best explain myself to y’all who are new to me, and I think I’m going to do a thing from Twitter where I repost 20 books that have had a big influence on me, but without any commentary. So here we go!

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 4h

lol in the bed before midnight like a proper adult? Look at me go.

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Reposted by Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them)

Meg Linehan @meglinehan.com · 6h

i was not prepared for what it was, not least bc everyone is hitting a wildly different beat here

andré @838carlisle.bsky.social · 9h

i really need you to turn on the volume and hear what they’re dancing to

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 11h

This is some good shit right here

ℳatt @matttomic.bsky.social · 12h

Here's a recording of the pilot of C-GZPT, a Cirrus SR22, tracing the Jays logo over Nova Scotia

Reposted by Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them)

Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 14h

It’s funny how black people are expected to reach across the aisle to voters like these, while no one ever expects them to reach across the aisle to black people. Amazing who gets to be human, and who doesn’t.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 16h

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 17h

I am about to go for the longest walk. Heartbreaking. balleralert.com/profiles/blo...

D’Angelo Dead At 51 After Battle With Pancreatic Cancer

Neo-soul legend D’Angelo has died after a private battle with pancreatic cancer. Read Baller Alert’s exclusive report celebrating his life, music, and impact.

balleralert.com

Reposted by Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them)

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 23h

There needs to be more coverage of this in the news. I have read so many stories bout this on Facebook, first hand stories of the terror of that storm, and very little coverage n media.
www.facebook.com/100000960660...

Screenshot of a Facebook post. Photo is an elderly woman holding a child on her ap on a couch with flood water around them. Both are wearing jackets inside. Text says: This was after our 1st drift.. staying put for awhile. Our 3rd and final drift was terrifying. House moving fast then we started spinning in circles. While we were spinning in circles my oldest daughter was just staring at me while I held onto my younger two. Kipnuk doesn't look like kipnuk anymore, like more than 3/4 of the homes displaced, power poles fallen. It smells like stove oil outside. Contaminated

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Reposted by Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them)

austin_walker @austinwalker.bsky.social · 1d

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

Truly a closeted queen for the ages.

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

This is a way that community care can look like

Dr. Bourbonstein Ph. D @drbourbonstein.bsky.social · 1d

I'm here to help!

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

This was a good reminder that I have cheese curds in the house too. No fries, but I think the curds are gonna hit regardless.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

I should probably say, for the sake of a future career as an academic, that I'm not fully anti-Enlightenment (insomuch as someone like Curtis Yarvin, a fool, embodies that) as much as I am starting to invest in what a Left post-Enlightenment philosophy could look like.

Reposted by Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them)

Robert Loerzel @robertloerzel.bsky.social · 1d

A few messages seen today in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood

A poster on a pole next to a street says:
“ICE YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE
!RECORD!
!RECORD!
!RECORD!
NAZI RATS LEAVE OUR CITY”

A stack of posters featuring a hammer-wielding figure with the stars of the Chicago wrapped around his torso. It says:
“I PREFER MY ICE CRUSHED. END IMMIGRATION ARRESTS, DEFEND OUR SANCTUARY”

A sign in a store window says: “WE DON’T [SERVE is crossed out] FEED ICE OR PIGS! even if you steal this sign”

The words “ICE OUT” are written in chalk on a sidewalk.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

It's racist and enby erasure that I don't have cheese fries right now.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

The quick version is that 1) Enlightenment thinking (specifically Locke) is how we get to Rugged Individualism; 2)I don’t think you get contemporary conceptions of race and gender as immutable without Enlightenment-era ideas of scientism and “rationality;” 3) capitalism.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

*Attempts to recreate WNUA 95.5
*Spiritbox
*Ghost (specifically Infestissumum and Meliora)
*The Last Poppy album
*Pretty Hate Machine

A screenshot from NGL: “What are you listening to to get thru these days?”

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

But also:
*the Enlightenment was bad, actually
*the fact that basically every culture has a version of fried rice means that’s the ideal-type food
*most things that people find fun or exciting are really an expression of nostalgia, and thus ripe for exploitation by fascists

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

I mean my hottest take right now is that America is a lot more fucked than people want to admit, and that we’re not in an environment where mass protest is going to lead to lasting political change.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

OkCupid! We bonded over a shared admiration of Tom Colicchio, which led to 5 dates on 2 weeks.

Screenshot from NGL: “How did you meet your spouse?”

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

I'm having a lot of hot take type thoughts right now, but the thing that feels the most shareable (and part of the state I'm in is like I should share things) is that vanilla ice cream is good actually.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

It's a d418 system, but if you roll a 93 you somehow both win and lose the game.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

For sure! What my grad school sibling and I have started to sort of puzzle out is that there's a sort of anti-Enlightenment shmood on the left that's real but doesn't have the language to assert itself because it's rhetorically tough for leftists to be "anti-freedom" or "anti-autonomy"

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

This is The Most Crunchy System and I need it to live

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

a ttrpg but it’s all tables. The cover is a table you roll on to determine which art is on the cover. There’s a table to determine who was its lead designer. there’s a table for who becomes the GM and instead of rolling dice it’s decided by how many snacks are present

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

lol I forgot about the reading Harvey part let’s do this while I’m still awake.

Anonymous messages!

ngl.link

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

This won’t have any negative repercussions at all.

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 1d

Scoop: Deep cuts at NBC News—as a result of MSNBC and CNBC spinning off—are expected to start at the network on Wednesday. Details in @status.news: link.status.news/47aWtXm

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 1d

Can I say something about Gene Kelly?

Members of an Asian country’s National legislature fight for control of a microphone. The caption says “Would”

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