Vivek Ramaswamy Says America Doesn’t Have Enough Engineers Because We Mocked Steve Urkel

The unholy union between the Trump-loyal MAGA Right and the opportunistic grifters of the Tech Right has found its first major clash: H-1B visa policies. As the two teams try to sort themselves out, they stumble New trends in racism and xenophobia Along the way, co-grifter-in-chief of the Department of Government Efficiency Vivek Ramaswamy Bless us with a new theory Why America has fallen behind in its ability to produce elite engineers: We worshiped Stefan instead Steve Urkel.

According to Ramaswamy, “our American culture has honored mediocrity over excellence,” and it all boils down to 1990s sitcoms and America’s preference for jocks and prom queens over “Math Olympiad champs” or valedictorian.

“A culture that venerates Corey from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Screech over Jack and Slater in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stephen’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters’ won’t make the best engineer,” Ramaswamy said. Tweet Publicly in a message that other people and everything can read.

The reason top tech companies hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers more often than “native” Americans isn’t an inherent American IQ deficit (a lazy and misguided explanation). A key part of this comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers and if…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

This whole thing makes so much sense that it’s hard to really know where to start, but I think it’s worth starting with the fact that this isn’t even an accurate recount. family matters. Steve Urkel was so popular with viewers that the show was rewritten to center around the character. It went from a run-of-the-mill family sitcom to a sci-fi-dipped comedy centered around America’s favorite nerd. Even the Stefan character was a product of Urkel’s complete nerd shtick. (If you haven’t family matters Vidya, Steve changes his DNA to be a cooler version of himself and his love interest Laura, and eventually he creates a clone that can be Steve’s whole time cool person without needing to transform into two. Laura chooses Steve over Stefan anyway.)

To be honest, this isn’t even the most egregious example of Ramaswamy’s piss-poor media literacy displayed in this tweet. He says “more movies like Whiplash, less reruns of ‘Friends,'” perhaps because he falls into the camp of people who feel that JK Simmons’ character is imposed on his young students. Whiplash Fair because it pushes him towards greatness rather than seeing him as a tyrannical lunatic.

Also—look, I know I’m really hammering the media but I swear this is the last—what a wild drive-by from Corey. Boy Meets World. He has to try very hard to seem cool and it never takes for him. He’s ultimately just an average guy who figures out how to be himself. He is definitely not a jock or prom king material.

whatever What prompted Ramaswamy to overturn the decision was an ongoing battle over H-1B visas, which allow American companies to hire foreign workers for specialized occupations and have become a commonly used tool in the tech industry to attract global talent. The top H-1B visa providers are almost all technology companies, and Visa is no exception Bring skilled workers into the fold and greatly benefit the economySo have the big tech firms Accused of using employment tools to outsource work Time to lay off housekeepers.

The immigration hot-button issue is the biggest DKE situation I’ve ever seen 😂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024

Trump The H1-B visa is limited to its first term– a policy the Biden administration has reversed and Tweaked to make it easier to hire immigrants. But, as Trump prepares to take power again, that program will appear in the cut block.

The divide between Trump loyalists and tech industry players reared its head last week Sriram Krishnan of a16z was name Trump White House senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence. The appointment drew the ire of staunch racist Laura Loomer, who believes Krishnan wants to “remove all restrictions on green card caps”. This will lead to more foreign students coming to the US, which is bad in Lumar’s view. he too accused Krishnan was supposed to donate to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, but he turned up confused him for someone with the same nameWhich seems to be true for his entire contract.

Now Ramaswamy and his fellow Trump-linked tech bros have defended immigration programs for skilled workers and students as they find themselves at odds with the nationalist front of the MAGA movement. As bound to happen, it’s a little surprising that the war broke out before Trump even took office — and on Christmas Day, no less. I guess if your family disowns you, you’ve got plenty of time to argue immigration policy on Twitter during the holidays.

If there’s one thing Ramaswamy can identify correctly, though perhaps accidentally, it’s the jock-nerd divide. Author John Ganz presents his The “Jock/Creep” Theory of Fascism In 2023, and it feels pretty prescient here. The theory posits that Americans are particularly drawn to the jock/bully tradition for their authoritarian leaders, while the creeps/losers scheme behind the scenes. “Dull people want to give their actions the appearance of historical grandeur, while dowries look for a personality that embodies the energy they lack,” he writes.

Trump is undoubtedly a jock in this alignment, so there’s little question that his supporters gravitate to that kind of power—something Ramaswamy argued shouldn’t be lionized in American culture. Before placing himself directly above the divided ground beneath him, Ramaswamy served as a kind of journey between jocks and nerds: able to Capture the imagination of MAGA Better than any other Trump replacement, but still very much out of touch with the people pushing the right curve in the tech world. Now it seems she’s cast her lot with nerds in MAGA’s eyes.