The unholy union between the Trump-loyal MAGA proper and the opportunistic grifters of the Tech Proper have discovered their first main conflict: H-1B visa insurance policies. As the 2 teams attempt to kind themselves out, stumbling throughout new strands of racism and xenophobia alongside the way in which, Division of Authorities Effectivity co-grifter-in-chief Vivek Ramaswamy has blessed us with a new theory for why America has supposedly fallen behind in its skill to supply elite engineers: we worshipped Stefan as a substitute of Steve Urkel.
In response to Ramaswamy, “Our American tradition has honored mediocrity over excellence,” and all of it dates again to Nineties sitcoms and America’s choice for the jock and promenade queen over the “math olympiad champ” or valedictorian.
“A tradition that venerates Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater over Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Household Issues,’ won’t produce the perfect engineers,” Ramaswamy tweeted publicly in a message that may be learn by different folks and all the things.
The rationale prime tech firms typically rent foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Individuals isn’t due to an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & flawed clarification). A key a part of it comes all the way down to the c-word: tradition. Powerful questions demand robust solutions & if…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024
This complete factor is so incomprehensible that it’s exhausting to actually know the place to start, however I suppose it’d be value beginning with the truth that this isn’t even an correct recounting of Household Issues. Steve Urkel was so common with audiences that the present obtained re-written to middle the character. It went from a run-of-the-mill household sitcom to a sci-fi-dipped comedy centered round America’s favourite nerd. Even the Stefan character was the product of Urkel’s complete nerd shtick. (In case you aren’t up on Household Issues lore, Steve alters his DNA to be a cooler model of himself and woo his love curiosity Laura, and ultimately he creates a clone who could be cool man Stefan full time as a substitute of requiring Steve to rework between the 2. Laura finally ends up selecting Steve over Stefan anyway.)
Frankly, this isn’t even essentially the most egregious instance of Ramaswamy’s piss-poor media literacy on show on this tweet. He says “Extra films like Whiplash, fewer reruns of ‘Associates,’” presumably as a result of he falls into the camp of people that suppose the abuse J.Ok. Simmons’ character levies on his younger college students in Whiplash is justified as a result of it pushes them to greatness fairly than viewing him as a tyrannical lunatic.
Additionally—look, I do know I’m actually hammering the media takes however I swear that is the final one—what a wild drive-by of Cory from Boy Meets World. He has to strive extraordinarily exhausting to appear cool and it simply by no means takes for him. He’s in the end a quintessentially common man who figures out tips on how to be himself. He’s definitely not a jock or promenade king materials.
Anyway. What prompted Ramaswamy to interrupt out this take was an ongoing battle about H-1B visas, which permit American firms to rent international staff for specialty occupations and have grow to be a generally used device within the tech trade to draw international expertise. The highest H-1B visa issuers are just about all tech firms, and whereas the visas undoubtedly bring skilled workers into the fold and benefit the economy broadly, Huge Tech corporations have additionally been accused of using the employment tool to outsource work whereas shedding home workers.
The immigration hot-button matter is the most important DKE state of affairs I’ve ever seen 😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024
Trump restricted H1-B visas during his first term—a coverage the Biden administration reversed and tweaked to make it easier to rent immigrants. However, as Trump prepares to take workplace once more, this system appears on the chopping block.
The divide between Trump loyalists and Tech trade gamers reared its head over the course of the previous week after a16z’s Sriram Krishnan was named senior coverage adviser for Synthetic Intelligence for the Trump White Home. The appointment drew the ire of prolific racist Laura Loomer, who believes Krishnan desires to “take away all restrictions on inexperienced card caps.” That will result in extra international college students coming to the US, which is unhealthy in Loomer’s eyes. She additionally accused Krishnan of donating to the Kamala Harris presidential marketing campaign, but it surely turned out she confused him for someone with the same name, which appears about proper for her complete deal.
Now Ramaswamy and his fellow Trump-aligned tech bros have taken to defending immigration applications for expert staff and college students as they discover themselves at odds with the nationalist entrance of the MAGA motion. This was certain to occur, it’s just a bit stunning that the struggle broke out earlier than Trump even took workplace—and on Christmas day, no much less. I suppose if your loved ones has disowned you, you’ve obtained much more time to argue immigration coverage on Twitter through the holidays.
If there’s one factor Ramaswamy accurately identifies, albeit probably by accident, it’s the jock-nerd divide. The author John Ganz offered his “Jock/Creep” theory of fascism in 2023, and it feels fairly prescient right here. The idea posits that Individuals are significantly drawn to the jock/bully archetypes for his or her authoritarian leaders, whereas the creep/loser sorts do the plotting behind the scenes. “The uninteresting search to provide their actions the looks of historic grandeur, whereas the dowdy search for a determine who embodies the power they lack,” he writes.
Trump is undoubtedly a jock on this alignment, so there’s little query that his supporters are drawn to that kind of power—the very sort that Ramaswamy argues shouldn’t be lionized in American tradition. Previous to inserting himself instantly atop the splintering floor beneath him, Ramaswamy served as a form of go-between of the jocks and the nerds: in a position to capture the imagination of MAGA higher than every other Trump substitute, however nonetheless very a lot in contact with the folks pushing the tech world’s rightward bend. Now it seems he’s solid his lot with the nerds within the eyes of MAGA.
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