Vivek Ramaswamy ignited a storm of controversy Thursday with a social media submit slamming US tradition. His remarks disparaging promenade queens, highschool jocks, and even beloved 90s TV characters like Cory Matthews and Stefan Urquelle have sparked a backlash amongst MAGA loyalists.
Ramaswamy’s feedback got here amid ongoing debates in regards to the H-1B visa program, which allows US firms to rent overseas employees for specialised roles. While supporting reform for this system, Ramaswamy argued that the US lacks the cultural focus to provide world-class engineers.
“Our American tradition has honored mediocrity over excellence for means too lengthy (at the least for the reason that 90s and sure longer),” he wrote. “That doesn’t begin in school, it begins YOUNG.”
“A tradition that celebrates the promenade queen over the maths olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, is not going to produce one of the best engineers. 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 ‘Family Matters,’ is not going to produce one of the best engineers.”
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The 39-year-old former GOP candidate drew upon his personal upbringing in his critique. A valedictorian on the prestigious St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ramaswamy is the son of Indian immigrants who got here to the US on work visas.
To revitalize American innovation, Ramaswamy urged cultural adjustments, together with prioritizing science competitions over sleepovers and selling movies like Whiplash over sitcoms like Friends. He argued these shifts might be a “Sputnik second” for the nation: “We’ve awaken from slumber earlier than & we will do it once more,” he stated.
The backlash from conservative influencers and MAGA figures was swift
Rogan ‘DC Draino’ O’Handley criticized Ramaswamy for straying from his position in reducing authorities spending, tweeting, “How did DOGE go from ‘let’s lower wasteful authorities spending’ to ‘right here’s why we have to import extra immigrants’ virtually in a single day?”
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley additionally fired again, writing, “There is nothing fallacious with American employees or American tradition. We needs to be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not overseas employees.”
Others accused Ramaswamy of elitism and cultural disloyalty, together with right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich, who identified, “Underlying your submit is that we had been all dwelling in squalor till being rescued by H-1Bs.”
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However, Elon Musk, himself a former H-1B recipient, supported Ramaswamy’s stance. Musk argued for recruiting high expertise globally to keep up aggressive excellence. “The variety of people who find themselves tremendous gifted engineers AND tremendous motivated within the USA is way too low,” he stated.