Hey Yang Gang,

It has been another big week for the Yang Gang starting with Yang’s (arguably) best debate performance yet and ending with the unprecedented 10-hour Yangathon. Yang continues to show he is a dynamic candidate with the right message and character, as well as an increasingly legitimate shot at being our next President.

When I started this newsletter, I wasn’t sure there’d be so much to write about every week, but Yang’s campaign has created a very passionate community with a ton of inspired ideas. Our network is growing all the time in unexpected and interesting ways. This whole project has been fascinating. I’m happy to be part of this community and glad you’re with us reading every week.

Glimpse of the Democratic Party’s future?

Andrew is starting to shine as a leader in the Democratic Party. An entire topic was devoted to Yang’s bread and butter — automation. The other candidates looked to him as an authority on the issue — perhaps a sign of things to come? Even CNN’s Chris Cillizza — occasional frenemy to the Yang Gang — acknowledged Yang as one of the debate’s winners, admitting

“that ‘MATH’ pin was straight fire.”

Andrew seems to have a genuinely friendly relationship with competitors like, Biden, Booker, Gabbard, Harris and O'Rourke. Apparently, he’s also popular with the Berners. It’s a good sign when a candidate can maintain friendly relations with the competition. If we can pull it off right, the Yang Gang can peel off a majority of these supporters when their candidate drops out, but that’s only if we can maintain good relationships. Let’s learn from Yang’s example here: if you meet competition, be nice. We will need them on our team when Yang has his big matchup with Elizabeth Warren.

In the debate, Andrew got into head-to-head exchanges with front-runner Elizabeth Warren. If the Yang Gang is right, we can expect a lot more of this in the coming months. The leadership of Yang, the shifting topics of conversation, and direct Yang versus Warren matchups – all a sign of things to come.

But before we get too confident, remember this race is far from over. Take a look at this crowd of 25,000+ people at the Sanders rally where Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced her endorsement of his candidacy.

Yang continues to do well, but our “longer than long shot” candidate is still a long shot and could really use a few more dollars in his bank account so please donate if you can.

Here come the haters

With more success comes more attention and with more attention comes more negativity so we shouldn’t be so surprised headlines after the debate included:

“Andrew Yang, Snake Oil Salesman” – National Review

“Andrew Yang Is Full of It” – Slate

“Is Yang Doing More Harm Than Good to the Case for a Universal Basic Income?” –Politico

“Andrew Yang’s (phantom) robot menace” – New York Post

“Democrats, Avoid the Robot Rabbit Hole: The automation obsession is an escapist fantasy.” – New York Times

“Harping on the dangers of automation, while it may sound tough-minded, is in practice a sort of escapist fantasy for centrists who don’t want to confront truly hard questions. And progressives like Warren and Sanders who reject technological determinism and face up to the political roots of our problems are, on this issue at least, the actual hardheaded realists in the room.” –Paul Krugman, Princeton Economics Professor, Nobel Memorial Prize Winner

Of course the man who literally wrote the book on the threat of automation has the data to back up what he believes. Andrew went on a MATH-heavy tweet storm about why automation is real, but does what’s real change minds?

Automation deniers

Andrew’s message is growing too loud to ignore. Like Krugman, Warren doesn’t believe automation is a real threat. We can already see the anti-Yang narrative: “Yang is spreading fake ‘tech bro’ news to scare Americans.” The good news is the automation issue is new to the national dialogue. Most people haven’t formed strong views on the subject yet, so their opinions and confirmation biases haven’t hardened completely, but they will.

For anyone willing to listen, automation seems obvious, but there are also many intelligent and educated people who will just not want to hear it. The threat of climate change is real according to most scientists, but that hasn’t stopped our current President — and a large chunk of Americans — to believe the opposite. The same could happen with automation. It will come down to whether people believe this issue is a natural thing that has happened all throughout history or this time is different than anything we’ve seen before.

In my humble opinion, trying to convince someone their reality is wrong and ours is right is a losing battle. Both sides can say with complete confidence, “the studies are clear… the data is obvious… the facts are… We’re right. You’re wrong.”

Since we’ve seen this play out before with the climate change debate, let’s play a different game with the automation story. There are a wide variety of reasons why the Freedom Dividend is necessary. Automation is a piece of the story, not the whole story. Like Andrew’s entire campaign, it appeals to different people for different reasons. Besides helping us adapt to automation, the Freedom Dividend:

Promotes equality and helps the poor,

Respects caregivers,

Empowers the individual and allows people to choose what is best for themselves,

Establishes all human beings have value, “The market is not the end all be all of who has value and who doesn’t.” – Andrew Yang, during the 10-Hour Yangathon.

Evolves capitalism so income doesn't start at $0,

Is something we want to do, and we have the power to do as the owners and shareholders of the greatest — most prosperous — country in the history of the world.

Instead of using only our studies and data to fight their studies and data, remember the other reasons why Andrew Yang should be leading this country forward like

Tweet us or reply to this email to let me know what you think about how we tackle the issue of “Automation Deniers.”

[From Arthur the Editor] There is no mainstream narrative on the freedom dividend so far, but it will happen eventually, and the Yang Gang should be prepared. For now, many pundits consider it a joke issue, and some progressives frame it as a policy that can easily be manipulated by unethical markets (this meme has spread to various other communities). These points may serve as the building blocks for a narrative against Yang’s candidacy. In face of these criticisms, it is important to remember the “universal” in Universal Basic Income. Andrew answers this question all the time: “Why does a billionaire need $1,000 a month?” The policy is universal to avoid a narrative about winners and losers. Everyone will do better with the Freedom Dividend. Rather than debate the facts, talk about how the Freedom Dividend will help someone’s family or their community. For better or worse, people respond to narratives more reliably than facts.

All the platforms

Last week, I talked about Platform Banking. This week, I ask you to join me on these different platforms so we can spread the #YangGangLove as far and wide as possible. Create accounts if you don’t have one. Start that Yang Gang idea you had — I know there are a lot of good ones from the Yang Gang Dividend survey and we’re excited to release the result of next week! It doesn’t need to be perfect — I know this newsletter and my feeble attempts at social media accounts are far from perfect, but if enough people show up, support, follow, and spread the message, we may win this thing.

(Please forgive our embarrassingly low follower account and content for these brand new accounts.) 😬

Facebook:

Linkedin

Instagram

I will also happily share your social media accounts/pages/groups/etc. with the Yang Gang Wisdom subscribers and readers. Just reply to this email with a link to the accounts you want to share and I will send it out next week! Our job — Yang Gang — is to make a big loud splash all across America in every way we can.

Best of the week

Meme Banking

Absolutely amazing work from the Humanity FWD Fund with their #YangMemeMuseum truck thing!

College Banking

Cake Banking

Car Banking

Truck Banking

I will be forever highlighting this amazing #TruckersForYang project. Grassroots. Organic. Inspiring!

Shade Banking

Podcast

This podcast is not about Andrew Yang. His name is not mentioned once, but the conversation is one of the most convincing I have ever heard for why a leader like Yang is needed and even likely at this point in time. If you are interested in history, economics, or technology I highly recommend giving this podcast 40 minutes of your time.

https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/10/bubbles-golden-ages-and-tech-revolutions

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Who is the Yang Gang?

If you haven’t already, please complete and share our flagship “Who is the Yang Gang?” survey to figure out who the Yang Gang is so we can better understand where and who we should reach out to next.

As always, please let me know what you think by simply replying to this e-mail. Your comments, suggestions, and thoughts are always appreciated!

About the author: Ki Chong Tran was born and raised in Los Angeles, but now lives in London with his wife and puppy. Besides the Yang Gang, he also loves blockchain technology and mixed martial arts. His other Yang Gang project is a crypto reward token called Yang Gang Coin.

This newsletter was produced with the help of Arthur Augustyn, a writer based in the New York area. You can visit his website www.featherruffler.com.

This project is not affiliated with the official Yang2020 campaign, which can be found at yang2020.com.