NYC Mayor/2021 Megathread

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Do we know if Andrew Yang has any like...social disorders? I know he has an autistic son, but the way he carries himself is incredibly reminiscent of someone with high functioning autism. Not an insult or anything that should be used to disqualify him as a candidate, but his behavior has always struck me as a bit atypical.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Yeah, this has been an embarrassing rollout.

Honestly, at this point I see little to make me believe this isn't a series of boomlets until the electorate coalesces behind Scott Stringer or Shaun Donovan.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Do we know if Andrew Yang has any like...social disorders? I know he has an autistic son, but the way he carries himself is incredibly reminiscent of someone with high functioning autism. Not an insult or anything that should be used to disqualify him as a candidate, but his behavior has always struck me as a bit atypical.

If someone with his profile is on the autism spectrum, then there's like 101% chance he posts on Atlas.

[brucejoel99]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

My words of advice have evidently not been taken:

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1349900608992632832

[Never Made it to Graceland]

That's not a bodega, that's just a store.

It's missing the elderly uncle of the proprietor sitting in the corner on a milk crate watching the Real Madrid - Barca game on TV, the random collection of soap for sale in the other corner that looks like it hasn't been touched since the 90s, and in 2020, the half of the patrons wearing their masks incorrectly and the other half not wearing one at all, oh and the crackhead buying cigarettes and lighting up his first one right there at the counter.

[KaiserDave]

That's not a bodega, that's just a store.

It's missing the elderly uncle of the proprietor sitting in the corner on a milk crate watching the Real Madrid - Barca game on TV, the random collection of soap for sale in the other corner that looks like it hasn't been touched since the 90s, and in 2020, the half of the patrons wearing their masks incorrectly and the other half not wearing one at all, oh and the crackhead buying cigarettes and lighting up his first one right there at the counter.

And the cat

[KaiserDave]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

My words of advice have evidently not been taken:

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1349900608992632832

This isn’t that bad
The NYPD has appointed officers as commissioner before

[brucejoel99]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

My words of advice have evidently not been taken:

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1349900608992632832

This isn’t that bad
The NYPD has appointed officers as commissioner before

5000th-dimensional shogi argument: this is all good for Yang

https://twitter.com/Lis_Smith/status/1350160350335938575

[MaxQue]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

My words of advice have evidently not been taken:

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1349900608992632832

That's clearly an hitjob from Tom Winter. An ex NYPD cop isn't really a civilian.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Andrew Yang was my third choice in 2020, after Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer.

[morgieb]

Do we know if Andrew Yang has any like...social disorders? I know he has an autistic son, but the way he carries himself is incredibly reminiscent of someone with high functioning autism. Not an insult or anything that should be used to disqualify him as a candidate, but his behavior has always struck me as a bit atypical.

Given autism tends to have a genetic profile/tendency, I certainly think that he at least has some traits even if he isn’t diagnosed with it.

[AltWorlder]

Turns out it was a bodega all along:

https://twitter.com/EaterNY/status/1350197247473029122

And its owner is sad.

https://twitter.com/PopulismUpdates/status/1350199932385280005

Edit:

Big Yikes

https://twitter.com/ZachandMattShow/status/1350206604587761664

[AltWorlder]

Copying and pasting some thoughts I wrote out on Twitter cuz I don't feel like rephrasing it for here.

This guy is so hard to pin down. On the one hand, he does talk about issues that are important and even forward-thinking, but he seems to do so without command of the topic or any grasp of how legislation works.

In other words, he's pretty much the average American layman who hasn't actually worked in politics.

I remember during his Presidential campaign, it seemed like almost every issue he talked about related back to UBI. As if he did not have a complex understanding of how poverty or systemic injustice works other than “the absence of money.”

I should amend my earlier statement. My take on that is that he's got a singular laser-like focus on his one big solution, and by golly did he push for it and tried to connect to it in every way. But I'm not sure if his lack of a complex understanding of how those problems work is really all that much more shallow than any other person, or even most of our elected officials.

He’s more like a layman. A lot of the things he espouses are rooted in the abstract of what *could* be done as opposed to what *can* be done. And not in a “this idea is pie-in-the-sky” kind of way, more like “well if I think this is a good idea, it must be a good idea” He doesn’t understand legislation, he doesn’t understand government, he doesn’t understand governing. He admits that he’s never voted for mayor because he has “taken city government for granted.” How can you run for President while not having an appreciation for local politics? It seems like it’s a lot more vain than altruistic. It’s like he wants the credit for being the genius who figured out that poverty is bad. He doesn’t want to govern, he wants to be a movie star. It always rubbed me the wrong way that he would run for Pres w/o govt experience. After we elected Donald Trump, who ran for POTUS for the personal glory without understanding how government or legislating works, YOU’RE the guy who should succeed him? Someone who has virtually the same resume as Trump? That takes a lot of ambition. And not in a good way. I’ve always been skeptical of Yang and this article further proves that he may not really understand politics or issues outside of a very elementary grasp of things. It’s like he’s arrived at the correct answer without doing the work. It’s very technocratic.

Sure, but he's hardly the first one to do this, he's just the first one who's used this technocratic style. Trump did it, Perot did it, a bunch of other businessmen did it before. Yang's difference is that he comes off as nonconfrontational and easy-going, and speaks in numbers and plans that look like they either came out of Reddit or The Atlantic. He lacks populist anger, is a conventional Democrat social liberal, and speaks in abstractions rather than fire. But he's not too dissimilar from other political laymen who came before.

I don't see what's so hard to understand. He's just a unique variation on a theme.

I do think his easy-going nature makes him affable and come off as an idealist, positive qualities, rather than someone who's got a bone to pick, or is seeking power for the sake of it.

[KaiserDave]

I'm of the mind that baseless speculation on Yang being on the spectrum is baseless and speculative.

We're very much used to stage managed politicians. Remember that.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Andrew Yang was my third choice in 2020, after Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer.

You of all people supporting a billionaire? Color me surprised.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Andrew Yang was my third choice in 2020, after Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer.

You of all people supporting a billionaire? Color me surprised.

Steyer's on a different level than Bloomberg, who is scum.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Andrew Yang was my third choice in 2020, after Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer.

You of all people supporting a billionaire? Color me surprised.

Steyer's on a different level than Bloomberg, who is scum.

And Warren's place in all this?

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Andrew Yang was my third choice in 2020, after Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer.

You of all people supporting a billionaire? Color me surprised.

Steyer's on a different level than Bloomberg, who is scum.

And Warren's place in all this?

I was one of her earliest supporters and donors, but I soured on her when she backed off universal healthcare (which Steyer and Yang didn't support but at least had some interesting ideas and ideological consistency) and pulled that whole "liar on national TV" stunt. She would still rank highly if I had to rank them all, but she lost some respect in my eyes. De Blasio and Inslee would round out my top 5.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Whoever runs on finally kicking Airbnb out of New York has my support.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I'm of the mind that baseless speculation on Yang being on the spectrum is baseless and speculative.

We're very much used to stage managed politicians. Remember that.

Sure, and that’s why I tried to word my post to be strictly speculative while also saying that it shouldn’t diminish his chances in any way, but I don’t think I’ve ever met an adult who acts quite like Andrew Yang. Maybe he is just goofy and awkward.

[KaiserDave]

I'm of the mind that baseless speculation on Yang being on the spectrum is baseless and speculative.

We're very much used to stage managed politicians. Remember that.

Sure, and that’s why I tried to word my post to be strictly speculative while also saying that it shouldn’t diminish his chances in any way, but I don’t think I’ve ever met an adult who acts quite like Andrew Yang. Maybe he is just goofy and awkward.

You may be right

[Coldstream]

I’ve gone from finding Yang a bit irritating in a “get out of the way and let the real candidates fight” in mid-2019. To really warming to him, and finding him quite endearing. The more I see of him the more I like him, he’s not polished and I’m not under any illusions that he’d be an amazing mayor but you get the sense that he’d be a public servant if nothing else. And it wouldn’t shock me if others find him equally endearing.

[Donerail]

https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1350486277959856131
One underrated positive of Yang is that he'll stumble into good policy just because he rides a bike to work.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1350486277959856131
One underrated positive of Yang is that he'll stumble into good policy just because he rides a bike to work.

Well, if nothing else, the parallels with another famous bike-riding, gaffe-prone mayor that keep popping up like this point to Yang being the 49th President of the United States

[Progressive Pessimist]

I’ve gone from finding Yang a bit irritating in a “get out of the way and let the real candidates fight” in mid-2019. To really warming to him, and finding him quite endearing. The more I see of him the more I like him, he’s not polished and I’m not under any illusions that he’d be an amazing mayor but you get the sense that he’d be a public servant if nothing else. And it wouldn’t shock me if others find him equally endearing.

Seconded. Maybe his loyal base calming down since he dropped out helped too.