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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Roughly 0.5% of Chicago's population... I don't see it happening.

Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

I have yet to meet or even hear of a conservative man who does fiber arts. This definitely rings true, though for men and fiber arts specifically it's often kind of a chicken-or-egg thing because of traditions and perceptions.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Which explains their insane position that the greater your power, the less accountability you should be held to, lest it interfere with your function. If you have power, you're in the superior class. The law is there to protect you and bind the lower class, not the other way around.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

It's almost like they feel that there must be a superior class that the law protects but doesn't restrain, and another, inferior class that the law restrains but doesn't protect. Oh, wait.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Fundamentally, conservatives believe that acting outside the law places you wholly outside the law, including all your rights and protections. Anything abuse of a civilian is waved off with "Well, they broke the law first." LEOs are either fully restricted (never the case) or fully unaccountable.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

If a LEO breaks a law, they'll point at their procedures (which are instructional only, no enforcement) and say "We already fixed it, see?" and do nothing. If a civilian resists (even vs unlawful action) or breaks a law, in their eyes, the whole law no longer protects them or restricts the LEOs.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Immigration enforcement is the obvious example here. Legally, they can't detain or arrest citizens, demand ID from passerby, etc. Liberals often ask "What's the remediation when they break these laws?" Conservatives never ask that question when writing the laws. They assume 100% compliance.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

A telling observation re: approach to law: Liberals usually don't assume 100% compliance from civilians or LEOs, and try to compensate for that in their policy. Conservatives assume 100% compliance from both. LEOs in violation get ignored, while civilians in violation get demonized and abused.

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Diedrich Bader @diedrichbader.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

If sandwich shops don’t start offering a sandwich named “the acquittal” then what are we even doing

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

A much darker post. CW: Abandonment and allusions to suicide. For any of my friends who see this, worry not for me, this is not a cry for help. I'm doing pretty great, and I'm not going anywhere. nacustis.substack.com/p/suburban-g...

nacustis.substack.com

Suburban Gothic: Chimneys

A darker tone, and an exploration of a common mystery. CW: Abandonment and vague references to suicide

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I TOLD YOU! I was calling it "Hot Winter" two years ago! I'm a trend setter! A trend setter!

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

There have been many times when it's been all we've had, and we still persist. On a long enough timeline, we win.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

We gotta hope for something, but I'm not holding my breath on the GOP developing a conscience. For a lot of his base, though, this seems to somehow be the first they're hearing of it.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Stay on target, he's trying to distract from the Epstein files. God only knows why this is blowing up now and not literally any moment before now, but if this is what sinks him, it's what we've got to go with. From where I sit, the best way forward for America is a very public fall for Trump.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Getting to be the villain of the table. In the best games, everyone has come within one turn or instant of winning at least once.

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NPR @npr.org · 18/07/2025

Congress has decided to claw back previously approved funding for public media. This decision hurts people in communities across the country, but it has only strengthened our resolve to keep Americans informed and connected. (1/2)

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Reposted by Nathan Custis

God @thegodshow.com · 18/07/2025

When a network lays off one of America’s greatest satirists, it’s not because he failed. It’s because he succeeded too loudly.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The first time Charlie Chaplin used his voice in a film, he wielded it to forcefully condemn the rising forces of fascism around the globe. Will we listen to his words today?

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

That's true, maybe Elon fed Grok some of his sick fanfiction. The manipulations they've been doing to Grok have been absolutely buck wild in how overt and hamfisted they've been. We're lucky that subtlety isn't a hallmark of fascism.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I don't think it's so much that Grok did that as it is that a Twitter user used Grok to do it. Let's not give the glorified autocorrect engine too much credit by attributing agency to it.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Kind of like how conservatives are pissed about Captain America and Wolfenstein. Y'all, you could've stuck with the whitewashed corporate evil and most of the world would've been none the wiser. Nobody forced you into those Nazi caricatures.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

A good explanation, though not an encouraging one.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

There's probably a lot that can be read into about the fact that their definition of divinity (and all the authority that comes with it) is mostly tied up in power.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I was wondering earlier why so many people seem to get taken in by obvious political ploys. My theory right now is that politics generally becomes simpler if you stop listening to what they're saying and pay more attention to what they've done in the past and who they are as people.

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Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I got some script notes today and it's totally fine.

an angry opossum in a garbage can with the caption, "Writers defending their manuscript when given a minor critique: don't touch my garbage!"

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

I'll take "'Businesses' I'd create if I won the lottery" for $500. Along with more dedicated "third places" with low-cost space and board game rentals, and crafting studios where people can teach classes or just vibe while they do their thing in a shared space.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Grab an apple and walk around the house eating it, totally normal. Get a second one and do it again? Sure, the first didn't do the job. But sit down at the table with four apples on your plate, then eat them one at a time? Apparently that's "psychopath behavior."

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

I always told myself that if I had a kid I'd never not answer any of his questions. I didn't know the kinds of repetitive, "come on, you know the answer already" questions I'd get from my 5-year-old.

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

I got yelled at on this website today and somehow did not write a story for a magazine about how I'm reorienting my entire political orientation to piss off the people who got mad at me, in fact I learned I was being a bit of a butthead and, despite disagreeing, listened to their concerns, AMA

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Knitting bag doubles as a purse. Clicky clack sounds, but quiet enough to not be annoying. Gives you something to talk about if conversation stalls. Other fiber artists will come out of the woodwork to show or talk about their projects. Makes you super approachable.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Further benefits: If you're a man or masc, signals to people that you are at least probably not the garden variety toxic kind of man. Gives you something to do when thinking instead of staring at whoever you're talking to. You get cool stuff when you're done. Makes me forget I have a phone.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Want something to do that will keep your hands busy while listening or speaking? Want a way to stim without looking like you're not listening? Want just enough mental engagement to shut down the urge to multitask? Want people to approach you and show you their passions? Introducing: Knitting.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

"Threatens to?" They'd already done that when I was a conservative back in the 00's. A deadened or dead sense of empathy is a prerequisite to embrace conservative doctrine, and has been for decades.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

A fresh one, hot off the proverbial presses. Lighter on the horror, heavier on the symbolism and emotion. This one means a lot to me. Everyone needs a witch friend. Enjoy #SuburbanGothic: Labyrinths. open.substack.com/pub/nacustis...

open.substack.com

Suburban Gothic: Labyrinths

Everyone’s home is built atop their own personal labyrinth.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 22/06/2025

Congress, Now More Than Ever, We Need Your Cowardice

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Fuckin' get into therapy and be vulnerable with your friends, y'all, I don't care how okay you think you are. You can get better in ways you haven't even dreamed of.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

But. To heal from those things? To remove a hook you never even thought of as a hook? To love yourself in a way you never dreamed possible? To find connection you'd never even let yourself desire? That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed or experienced.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

People are free and love themselves and resist manipulation every day in ways that have never even been fathomed by some others. The idea that these things that we see taken by brainwashing could have just never been had in the first place for some people feels utterly horrifying to me.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Someone losing their light and exuberance, having hooks placed into their formerly strong minds to make them weak, is scary, but most of not all of us came into our own as individuals with those already there, and it hardly matters whether that was intentional.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Someone can be brainwashed from a wild, independent person into a docile servant. And that's horrific primarily because that wild independence was destroyed. It's also pretty horrible when they never even imagined they could be anything else to begin with.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

🧵 because I can spell "brevity" but not define it. Brainwashing is scary because it can take a sane person and make them insane, or a friendly person and make them hostile, or a whole person and make them broken, on a fundamental level. Even worse to me is when those things are baked in to start

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

I think any religious person should be agnostic. Historically speaking, probably the single most destructive idea mankind has ever carried is the certainty that God is on their side. That doubt is crucial to the ethical practice of any religion.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Their $5 or $7 a month or whatever it is now is well worth it.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

If you haven't seen Dimension 20 on Dropout, I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

There are a lot of people who have been hurt by one arm or another of the Church, and its doctrines. A lot of those people haven't had the time or resources to properly heal, so they have a defensive reaction to anything that looks similar. A completely understandable reaction.

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Nathan Custis @nacustis.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

I agree. I feel like anything less would be unworthy of their creations. If we're going to have a North star to follow, it has to be better than us. It has to be a goal we may never reach.

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