Vivek Ramaswamy says the US doesn’t have enough engineers because we make fun of Steve Urkel

The unholy union between the Trump-loyal MAGA right and the opportunistic grifters of the tech right has encountered its first major clash: H-1B visa policies. While the two groups try to organize themselves, stumbling over New currents of racism and xenophobia. Along the way, Department of Government Efficiency co-con-in-chief Vivek Ramaswamy has He blessed us with a new theory. why the United States has supposedly fallen behind in its ability to produce elite engineers: We worship Stefan instead of Steve Urkel.

According to Ramaswamy, “Our American culture has revered mediocrity over excellence,” and it all goes back to the sitcoms of the 1990s and America’s preference for the jock and prom queen over the “mathematics Olympiad champion” or the best student.

“A culture that worships Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater instead of Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ instead of Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters,’ will not produce the best engineers. “Ramaswamy said. tweeted publicly in a message that can be read by other people and everything.

The reason major tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers instead of “native” Americans is not because of an innate American IQ deficit (a vague and incorrect explanation). A key part comes down to the c-word: culture. Difficult questions demand difficult answers and if…

—Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

All of this is so incomprehensible that it’s hard to really know where to start, but I suppose it would be worth starting with the fact that this isn’t even an accurate account of family matters. Steve Urkel was so popular with audiences that the show was rewritten to center the character. It went from a run-of-the-mill family comedy to a sci-fi comedy centered around America’s favorite nerd. Even Stefan’s character was a product of Urkel’s whole nerd shtick. (If you are not aware family matters According to lore, Steve alters his DNA to be a cooler version of himself to woo his love interest Laura, eventually creating a clone who can be cool guy Stefan full-time instead of requiring Steve to transform between the two. Laura ends up choosing Steve over Stefan anyway.)

Frankly, this isn’t even the most egregious example of Ramaswamy’s poor media literacy on display in this tweet. He says “More movies like Whiplash, fewer ‘Friends’ reruns,” presumably because he falls into the camp of people who think the abuse JK Simmons’ character inflicts on his young students in Lash it’s justified because it pushes them to greatness instead of seeing him as a tyrannical lunatic.

Also, look, I know I’m being very critical of the media’s takes, but I swear this is the last one. What a wild ride for Cory since The boy knows the world. He has to try really hard to look cool and he never does. Ultimately, he’s a quintessential average guy who figures out how to be himself. Certainly not jock or prom king material.

Anyway. What prompted Ramaswamy to voice this opinion was an ongoing battle over H-1B visas, which allow American companies to hire foreign workers for specialty occupations and have become a commonly used tool in the tech industry to attract global talent. . The main issuers of H-1B visas are virtually all technology companies, and while the visas undoubtedly incorporate qualified workers and widely benefit the economylarge technology companies have also been accused of using employment tool to outsource work while dismissing domestic staff.

The hot topic of immigration is the biggest DKE situation I have ever seen in my life 😂

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024

Triumph H1-B visas restricted during his first term.—a policy that the Biden administration reversed and modified to make it easier hire immigrants. But as Trump prepares to take office again, the program appears on the cutting board.

The divide between Trump loyalists and tech industry players emerged over the course of last week after Sriram Krishnan by a16z was named Trump White House Senior Artificial Intelligence Policy Advisor. The appointment drew the ire of prolific racist Laura Loomer, who believe Krishnan wants to “remove all restrictions on green card limits.” That would lead to more foreign students coming to the United States, which is bad in Loomer’s eyes. she too accused Krishnan to donate to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, but it turned out that she He mistook him for someone with the same name.which seems appropriate for his whole deal.

Now Ramaswamy and his fellow Trump-aligned techies have taken to defending immigration programs for skilled workers and students as they find themselves at odds with the nationalist front of the MAGA movement. This had to happen, but it’s a bit surprising that war broke out even before Trump took office, and on Christmas Day no less. I guess if your family has disowned you, you have a lot more time to discuss immigration policy on Twitter during the holidays.

If there’s one thing Ramaswamy correctly, though probably accidentally, identifies, it’s the divide between jocks and nerds. The writer John Ganz presented his “Jock/Creep” theory of fascism in 2023, and here it seems quite prophetic. The theory posits that Americans are particularly attracted to the jock/bully archetypes of their authoritarian leaders, while the creepy/loser types plot behind the scenes. “The dull seek to give their actions the appearance of historical grandeur, while the disheveled seek a figure who embodies the strength they lack,” he writes.

Trump is certainly a jock in this lineup, so there’s no doubt his supporters are drawn to that kind of energy, which Ramaswamy believes should not be praised in American culture. Before standing directly above the splintered ground beneath him, Ramaswamy served as a sort of intermediary between the jocks and the nerds: able to capture the MAGA imagination better than any other Trump surrogate, but still very much in touch with the people driving the tech world’s right-wing curve. Now it seems he has joined the ranks of the nerds in the eyes of MAGA.