"I deleted the tweet because it was wrong-headed" - When politician and JRE guest Andrew Yang apologized for defending Joe Rogan amid 'N-word' saga
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang came under heavy fire earlier this year owing to one of his now-deleted tweets defending Joe Rogan amidst the Spotify racial slur controversy.
Yang, in his tweet, stated that Joe Rogan was not racist after a video of the podcaster using the 'N-word' surfaced online. The public, however, was not too happy with the wording of the tweet, which read:
"I don't think Joe Rogan is a racist - the man interacts with and works with black people literally all of the time."
Interestingly, the politician was quick to delete the tweet and apologize for his "wrong-headed" message that hurt many in society. In a series of subsequent posts, Andrew Yang attempted to clarify his position and make up for the original message:
"I deleted the tweet because it was wrong-headed. It also hurt people, which is never my intent. I’m sorry. I’m learning and appreciate those who reached out to express their feelings."
I deleted the tweet because it was wrong-headed. It also hurt people, which is never my intent. I’m sorry. I’m learning and appreciate those who reached out to express their feelings.
The former presidential candidate further stated that he always worked to uplift everyone in society, especially those who were marginalized
I like to believe the work I’ve done these past years had the goal of uplifting everyone, particularly those on the outside looking in for any reason, be it poverty or marginalization or race. I’ve always wanted to help those with the least the most.
Interestingly, Andrew Yang appeared as a guest on the #1245 edition of JRE. Perhaps the politician's affinity for the comedian comes from his time on the show.
Andrew Yang and Joe Rogan discuss the perils of automation
In his appearance on JRE, Andrew Yang told the podcast host that livelihood loss owing to automation in many employment sectors will eventually result in suicides and violence.
The former Democratic presidential candidate explained his point using the example of truck drivers. He stated that self-driving trucks are going to eventually weed out any need for human intervention.
"The way it's going to play out is, self-driving trucks are slowly going to start hitting the highways...The first stage is going to be a human driver sitting there as a fail safe and the truck is going to drive itself... the robot trucks will start reducing shifts of various truckers, I would say six to ten years from now."
Check out the clip below:
The politician explained that once truck drivers lose their livelihood, suicide rates and violence in the truck driving community will skyrocket:
"So you'll see truckers going home and drinking themselves to death or doing drugs and overdosing or killing themselves and eventually there'll be an outbreak of violence because some truckers will say instead of killing myself how about I go bust up a robot truck."
The politician opined that having a universal basic income for Americans would help those who are already struggling with their finances owing to job loss.
Yang stated that even though UBI would never be a permanent replacement for a job, an assured basic income would definitely take the existential threat off the citizens.
Watch the full podcast below: