Vivek Ramaswamy says America doesn’t have enough engineers because we made fun of Steve Urkel

The holy communion between the Trump-loyal MAGA Right and the Tech Right’s opportunistic crooks has found its first major clash: H-1B visa policies. As both groups stumble and try to sort themselves out new directions of racism and xenophobia Vivek Ramaswamy, Head of the Department of Government Efficiency, along the way gave us a new theory why America has fallen behind in its ability to produce elite engineers: we worshiped Stephen. Steve Urkel.

According to Ramaswamy, “Our American culture has come to value mediocrity over perfection,” and it’s all about 1990s sitcoms and America’s preference for jocks and prom queens over “math Olympiad champions” or valedictorians.

A culture that respects ‘Stephan’ for Corey on ‘Boy Meets World’ or Screech on Zach & Slater on ‘Saved by the Bell’ or Steve Urkel on ‘Family Matters’ won’t produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy said. he tweeted clearly in a message that can be read by other people and everything.

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t America’s innate lack of IQ (a lazy and misguided explanation). The crux of it all comes down to the c word: culture. Tough questions call for tough answers, and if…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

It’s all so confusing that it’s hard to know where to start, but I think it’s worth starting with because it’s not a clear explanation at all. Family Matters. Steve Urkel was so popular with viewers that the show was rewritten to center the character. It went from a regular family sitcom to a sci-fi comedy centered around America’s favorite nerd. Even the character of Stefan was a product of all Urkel’s subtleties. (If you’re not ready Family Matters Steve alters his DNA to become a colder version of himself and is attracted to his love interest, Laura, and eventually creates a clone that can become Stefan full-time instead of requiring Steve to switch between the two. Laura chooses Steve over Stefan anyway.)

Frankly, this isn’t even the worst example of Ramaswamy’s poor media literacy on display in this tweet. “More movies like Whiplash, less ‘Friends’ reruns,” he says, probably falling into the camp of people who think JK Simmons’ character is being abused. Whiplash he’s right because it inspires them to greatness rather than seeing him as a tyrannical madman.

Also—look, I know I’m getting media attention, but I swear it’s the last one—how wild of Cory Boy Meets World. He has to put in a lot of effort to look cool, and it’s never required of him. After all, he’s an average guy who knows how to be himself. He is certainly not a jock or prom king.

Anyway. What prompted Ramaswamy to make the move was the ongoing battle over H-1B visas, which allow American companies to hire foreign workers for skilled trades and have become a widely used tool in the tech industry to attract global talent. The top H-1B visa issuers are almost all technology companies, and the visas are certainly attract skilled workers and provide broad benefits to the economyThere have also been Big Tech firms accused of using employment tool for foreign work while laying off domestic workers.

The hot button topic of immigration is the biggest DKE situation I’ve ever seen 😂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024

Trump limited H1-B visas in its first term– a policy that the Biden administration rescinded and made to make it easier hiring immigrants. But as Trump prepares for re-election, the program appears in the chopping block.

The rift between Trump loyalists and Tech industry players has boiled over the past week Sriram Krishnan of a16z was named Trump White House Senior Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. The appointment drew the ire of prolific racist Laura Loomer 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 Loomer’s eyes. He too accused Krishnan donated to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, but it was revealed confused him with someone of the same nameit seems about right for all his work.

Now, Ramaswamy and his Trump-aligned tech brethren have begun advocating immigration programs for skilled workers and students, at odds with the nationalist front of the MAGA movement. It had to happen, it’s just a little surprising that the war started before Trump took office and on Christmas Day. I guess if your family has disowned you, you have more time to debate immigration policy on Twitter during the holidays.

If there’s one thing Ramaswamy gets right, albeit accidentally, it’s the jock-nerd divide. Writer John Ganz presented his work The “Jock/Creep” Theory of Fascism In 2023, and it feels pretty prescient here. The theory posits that Americans are especially drawn to the gamer/scary archetypes for their authoritarian leaders, while the creep/loser types scheme behind the scenes. He writes: “The milkless try to show their actions a historical grandeur, while the inferior people look for a figure that embodies the power they lack.”

Trump is certainly a toy in this alignment, so there’s little question that his supporters have that kind of energy—that Ramaswamy shouldn’t be lionized in American culture. Ramaswamy acted as a kind of bridge between gamers and nerds before settling on the fragmented ground immediately below: Capture MAGA’s imagination better than any other Trump replacement, but still very much in touch with the people pushing the tech world to tilt to the right. Now it seems he has cast his lot with the nerds in MAGA’s eyes.