About
Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur and Democratic candidate for the 2020 United States presidential election. Yang has gained a significant online following for his support of providing citizens with a universal basic income of $1,000 per month, referred to by his campaign as a “Freedom Dividend.”
History
In 2000, Yang launched the philanthropic fund-raising site Stargiving, which was shut down the following year. In 2011, Yang founded the nonprofit fellowship program Venture for America, which provides training to work at startups. In March 2017, Yang resigned as CEO of the program.
2020 Presidential Campaign
On November 6th, 2017, Yang officially filed a “Statement of Candidacy” to run as a Democrat for president of the United States in the 2020 election. A cornerstone of Yang’s campaign is to provide all United States citizens over the age of 18 a universal income, proposing a “Freedom Dividend” of $1,000 per month. On February 2nd, 2018, the official Andrew Yang for President 2020 YouTube channel uploaded a video promoting Yang’s campaign, along with his official slogan “Humanity First” (shown below).
Online Presence
On May 10th, 2018, the /r/YangForPresidentHQ subreddit was created for supporters of Yang’s presidential campaign.
Reddit AMA
On March 26th, 2018, Yang participated in an “”ask me anything””: (AMA) post on the /r/IAmA subreddit. Prior to being archived, the post gained over 14,600 points (63% upvoted) and 4,600 comments.
Joe Rogan Podcast
On February 12th, 2019, Yang appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he discussed his presidential campaign and his platform for universal basic income (shown below). Within one month, a video of the appearance received upwards of 2.05 million views on YouTube.
Yang Gang
Yang Gang is a nickname collectively referring to supporters of Yang in his 2020 presidential election bid. Online, Yang Gang memes referencing the candidate’s proposed UBI policy are frequently posted within various meme communities online, including the /pol/ board on 4chan. On March 6th, 2019, The Daily Beast published an article by staff writers Sam Stein and Will Sommer, which noted that Yang supporters on 4chan referred to the Freedom Dividend as “NEETbux,” referring to the acronym “NEET”.