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Duncan

@duncanh.bsky.social
236 followers 160 following 433 posts

Odd user of words. Sociopolitics. Culture. (He/Him) South African.

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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The concept of an "AI Agent" has been bandied about lately. Suggesting AI acts on its own. To be clear: that's always going to be bullshit. A human element will have always been involved at part of a process that led to [insert thing threatening form of function we value].
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Our differences are our strength; not a weakness. Let's remain focused on building together. Happy Heritage Day, South Africa.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This week has been a year, right? Emotionally tiring. Physically, we're still here, though. I'm at a point where I need things/people to mean something? In this context: maybe we get to be of use to someone in need going forward? By something we do/say. Let's keep going.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A lot is happening all at once right now. If it feels overwhelming? It's not wrong. You're not weird. How you feel, is valid. Whatever it is you need to do right now to balance your sense of self? Do. Do so in a healthy way. Look after yourself and your emotional health.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
19:00 in September.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Sometimes you don't survive whole, you just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is that attempt. It's not about that solution. It is about being as fearless as one can, and behaving as beautifully as one can, under completely impossible circumstances." — Morrison
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Nothing happens in a vacuum; everything is connected. And, as eloquently illustrated by Dr Assal Rad over the past few years in particular, joining those dots isn't a complicated endeavor. This book is a valuable contribution to society. One for which I'm thankful.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The idea of 'freedom', the very reality thereof, is inextricably linked with- and to that of folks in Palestine. Folks in Sudan. Folks in Congo, etc. Being receptive to understanding why that is, *that* — is a meaningful way by which we go forward from whatever *here*, now, is.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Mostly, we don't want to harm each other..." Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris. Read by Helena Bonham Carter
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Also: an opportune time for a reminder that English is a language, folks — a vehicle for communication. It is not a measure of intelligence.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
No media platform with a backbone, mindful of the everything that has been everything in particular 2026 — and, with specific reference to Venezuela and the US, should be using words like "deal" or, "pact" when it comes to their resource of oil.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
That's 1% of what was sought. 1%. Meta reported $59.89bn in revenue for *just* the 4th quarter of 2025 (The Guardian, Jan 2026) Also: this is specific to the 29 States that brought the case; not applicable worldwide. This victory feels simultaneously important & hollow.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
80 isn't "gone too soon". Dolly Parton lived a full life. I think what makes this loss noteworthy, is that in this life, we don't ever truly know what's going on in a person's heart? But, I think Dolly gave folks a pretty good glimpse into hers. And, it was beautiful.
80 isn't "gone too soon".

Dolly Parton lived a full life.

I think what makes this loss noteworthy, is that in this life, we don't ever truly know what's going on in a person's heart?

But, I think Dolly gave folks a pretty good glimpse into hers.

And, it was beautiful.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Skyfall by Adele is such a beautiful song. And, it is a beautiful moment in time. There is nothing that is "the perfect" whatever, but to the extent of Bond, it's close to the concept thereof.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
The reality of what it means to be a woman today, is being chipped away at, systematically. And, it's not coming from a space of believing in equality and basic decency. It's coming from a space of willful ignorance and greedy vested interests. We must all guard against it.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Apropos of nothing: "if you can't beat them, join them" is widely known. Being a fellow human being in 2026, I can appreciate that line of *thinking* making sense at times? But: I want us to remember that we get to hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard *in practice*.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
This is the kind of thing for which vested interests get mad at Mamdani. Him and his administration just doing their damn jobs: being of service to average folks in New York City. Nothing about any of what he's done is "controversial". Not unless you're lost as a human being.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Being open to *constructive* criticism & accountability is never a reduction to your.. being; it's an addition. At numerous points in time, I have/will have been wrong; unseemly — and hopefully called-out/corrected on it. That's a good thing. Unlearn; mature. (Continuously).
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Oh, Chubbers. 🙂
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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 24/07/2026
Wife: Just take the 10-year-old to the pool party and don’t make a scene with the other parents. Me:
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I love learning things I didn't know from folks who are knowledgeable on it. Oh, word, so *that's* a common architectural technique? Hmm, *that's* an interesting economic concept? The dung beetle does *what*? A whale feeds its babies *how*? Makes life feel a little less kaka.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
As weary as we get as South Africans from the everything that are politicians / public officials (Madlanga Commission, etc.) and geopolitics, it is incumbent on us to never completely tire of progressing our country. Nobody is coming. *We're* the us we need, folks. Focus.
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Feel like "every Jessica is a good Jessica" is one of those slogans that can work on multiple levels
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AC Fick 📚 @acfick72.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Read at least 20 of these authors' books: Margaret Atwood Gore Vidal Muriel Spark Philip Roth Joyce Carol Oates Gabriel García Márquez J. M. Coetzee Toni Morrison André Brink Philip K. Dick Ursula K. Le Guin Doris Lessing Nadine Gordimer Graham Greene Julian Barnes Italo Calvino Umberto Eco 🫅🏾📚🤓📖🗝🚪
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anotherhuman.bsky.social @anotherhuman.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Earthquakes in #Venezuela Wildires in #Spain Typhoons in the #Philippines Climate change is happening RIGHT NOW
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
To be clear: convicted felon. An international airport. Named after a convicted felon. America is okay with this.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram.. Is it too much to say: This is not not good. This should not happen. Any of it. Testing?
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Good for E. Jean Carroll that she has received [legal] justice. I wish her well. Sad, that: 24 hours from this: that the President of the United States *did this*, will have been a story that's buried in him saying/doing something "shocking" about Iran or, being bigoted. Or, or. Again. Lapped up.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Go see and follow the South African page @groundup.org.za They do exceptional Journalism in what one would expect the field to be. Literally from the ground, up.
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AC Fick 📚 @acfick72.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
From gerontocracy to kakistocracy to necrocracy: imperial apocalypse via the morally cheapest but consequentially most expensive route . . . To invoke Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, American dream turned global nightmare, indeed.
Still from THE GAY DECEIVERS (1969) showing Michael Greer as Malcolm looking at Sebastian Brook as Craig who is saying, "I detest cheap notoriety."

The wall behind them is decorated with a variety of flowers made of elaborately folded paper.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
It is now TWICE this week I've casually heard that being unmarried by a certain age of 30, is an "unokay?" It is? Y'all have married 1, 2, 3 people by that age & gone: yup, Lifetime? Each time? And, by, 70? Y'all okay with saying y'all have been 7 times? Absolutely no judgment? This is a thing?
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Tell people when they're being awful. Tell people when they're being amazing. Say when you're thankful. Say when you're sorry. Not *for* anything? Just be.. human? There is so little left of it.. out there?
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
We often read essays about / hear talk shows speak of how, when bad things happen in the United States go: "This is not who we are". But, when.. the everything.. encountered not only *is* currently rooted there — but mostly "accepted"?, questions gotta be asked about that statement's sensibility?
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The Women's Wimbledon Championships has been so close this year. It's pretty much open for anyone to take in the final. That's good for tennis.
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 30/06/2026
ALL Haymarket Books are 40% off through August 21st! ✊🏾✊🏿✊🏽
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The grass on Centre Court for Wimbledon is looking fucking fantastic. The people who worked on it, did a good job. Fucking marvelous.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Wimbledon is back. And, it's never Wimbledon for me without Steffi, or, Roger or, Pete? But, we'll have Venus and Serena? Beautiful.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I'm absolutely not this. I'm *super* flawed. But, what a privilege to be sincerely called "good hearted and good natured" by THE Serena Williams? Just beautiful.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I'm a fan of a good hug. This is a good hug. 🙂
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Gracie is my heroine. Writing my book as you read.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I've not been following the FIFA Men's Soccer World Cup with as much joy as I used to in my salad days? But, it *has* been notable to me how quiet bigots are about how racially diverse their [successful] teams are. Again: there's nothing creative or, intelligent to racism (& bigotry in general).
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
She's really doubling down on reestablishing herself as if the everything she has been over the past decades is somehow irrelevant, huh? Just wittle misownderstandings of her contributions to current world geo politics. Not the first, of course. Definitely won't be the last.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Using former President Obama's full name in that way is such an obvious dog whistle to his base. Nothing creative in the bigotry thereof. But, that's the thing: there's nothing creative about him or his racism and in general, racists. It's a spew of idiocy.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
That will make it, what, seven prime ministers in just 10 years? Bananas.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Wimbledon is starting in a few. Yay.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
We often talk about how good an orator Barack Obama is. And, that is true. It matters. But, Michelle Obama really hits where it matters in the everything she is. She is a force of grace on her own.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Whether it ends tomorrow, next month, or in 10 years. She's good for tennis. I want to see beautiful things for Alex in tennis.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
1. to. Epstein did disgusting things *to* girl-children & young women; not *with*. I'd have thought a US Vice President knows the difference? 2. Numerous survivors detailed their lived experiences; millions of physical files exist. 3. Vance is either incredibly stupid or incredibly duplicitous.
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AC Fick 📚 @acfick72.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Those who have not been taught patriotism will have a difficulty in finding a niche in our nationalistic world. Those who have not been taught respect for constituted authority will find themselves in trouble through the freedom of their criticisms. ▫️Bertrand Russell, 1932
Extracts from Bertrand Russell's EDUCATION AND THE SOCIAL ORDER (1932):

If you believe privately that two and two are four but avoid proclaiming this opinion, and hold it right that public money should be spent in teaching your children and the children of others that two and two are five, your effective opinion, from a social point of view, is that two and two are five, and your private personal conviction to the contrary becomes unimportant.
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Duncan @duncanh.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
No human being should be a trillionaire. There's nothing "cool" about it. There's nothing "admirable or aspirational" about it. There's nothing "funny" about it. It's unconscionable. It's simply wrong. Wrong. That thing that's the opposite of right? Still exists.
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