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A Response to Ramaswamy
During a days-long debate about the supposed need for #H1B visas, @VivekGRamaswamy went on an anti-American rant to insist that Americans, whom he characterizes as lazy and IQ deficient, need to be replaced by 3rd world migrants.
This is an American's response to Mr. Ramaswamy.
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:
Mr. Ramaswamy acknowledges that tech companies, presumably even his fake Alzheimer's drug company, have been actively discriminating against American citizens in hiring. Rather than criticizing this practice of choosing not to hire American workers, Mr. Ramaswamy suggests that this practice is the correct course of action due to an IQ deficit he believes exists in American workers when compared to their 3rd world counterparts. This alleged American IQ deficit, he reassures us, is not genetic, rather it's due to 90s television.
Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.
Mr. Ramaswamy suggests that America has been venerating mediocrity, as compared to the culture of 3rd world nations. He then lists a series of student achievements which would all be celebrated in any high school, but Mr. Ramaswamy demands that a rigid caste structure be placed over these celebrations. While a normal person might think there's plenty of time to celebrate both jocks and math olympians, Mr. Ramaswamy insists that one be shown preference over the other.
Perhaps we should look at how Mr. Ramaswamy treated American valedictorians and math olympians. Rather than hiring these people, Mr. Ramaswamy implemented DEI hiring practices and imported dozens of 3rd world workers using H1B visas. DEI and 3rd world migration will most definitely not produce the best engineers, yet Mr. Ramaswamy preferred these hiring practices to employing American valedictorians.
A culture 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,” will not produce the best engineers.
Look, I don't want to waste my time addressing the stupidest part of Mr. Ramaswamy's post, but it highlights his core idiocy. First of all, Cornelius “Cory” Matthews from Boy Meets World graduated from college, became a high school teacher, and married his high school sweetheart. This is a fairly definitional portrayal of the American Dream.
Slater from Saved By the Bell got a college scholarship for wrestling and later became a high school football coach. Maybe not the most accomplished careerist, but he was a secondary character.
Zack, on the other hand, excelled in academics, got multiple classmates clean off of drugs, was a multi-sport letterman, fronted a rock band, and, oh yeah, became governor of California.
Screech is an intelligent, but socially unaware dork who has bouts of useless brilliance. An intelligent person could probably watch the show and suggest that Screech and Slater are two competing halves of Zack’s mind, meant to act as a storytelling device for preteens, but whatever, Mr. Ramaswamy wants to put them in a caste system for some reason.
The Family Matters part is almost certainly the stupidest of his TV takes. Literally no human on Earth has ever said they prefer Stefan Urquelle to Steve Urkel. In fact, Urkell wasn’t even supposed to be a main character. He was supposed to be the wacky neighbor who shows up occasionally, but became so popular they made him the star of the show. His catchphrase was internationally famous. That Vivek would include a character so contrary to his attempted thesis suggests an incredible lack of thought behind his post. Steve Urkell, a character Mr. Ramaswamy suggests America must love in order to compete with China, has already been beloved for decades.
(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).
Mr. Ramaswamy now cites as proof of foreign cultural dominance an anecdote of two or more non-American families who refused to watch American television, and their children apparently became successful. Though it should be noted that all of his societal prescriptions so far have not been to stop watching TV, it's just been to change which characters we like.
More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”
Whiplash features a grown man emotionally abusing a teenaged musician with the hopes that it would make this teenager into an exceptional man. Unfortunately, the teenager gives up music altogether, despite his obvious talent. One could regard this as a negative message regarding this teaching style.
Next, Mr. Ramaswamy wants working parents to pay for additional tutoring, rather than spending time with their children and teaching them themselves. He also includes a very relevant-for-this-era quip about hanging out at the mall. Apparently, Mr. Ramaswamy thinks kids are spending their time at arcades and shopping at The Gap when they should be sitting around criticizing Saved By the Bell.
Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.
Perhaps Mr. Ramaswamy grew up in a more judgmental community than I, but I’ve never heard anyone heap scorn on students who enter science competitions, read books, or engage in “more extracurriculars.” This sort of caste mentality simply did not exist where I grew up. Additionally, every parent I’ve ever met believes their children are exceptional, not normal or mediocre. Not one parent has ever said their child was aspiring to normalcy.
Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.
People have been brutally honest with Mr. Ramaswamy after he posted his anti-American diatribe. Mr. Ramaswamy then went silent on social media for nearly a month before his failed senate bid gave way to a gubernatorial announcement, amid headlines that he’d been unceremoniously kicked out of DOGE.
“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.
Mr. Ramaswamy now attempts to pivot this into a question of national security. America's IQ has been so severely damaged by 90s television that without 3rd world migration, our "assess" are in danger from China.
Strangely, the people who believe increased 3rd world migration is required to sustain American economic dominance have yet to explain why this was never required in the past. China has always had more people than America, and America has always outcompeted China. The people who believe a repudiation of traditional American society is required to compete with China have yet to explain why this was never required in the past.
This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.
The “Sputnik moment” Mr. Ramaswamy references is the days-long debate on Twitter regarding the hireability of American workers and the alleged need to import more people from 3rd world nations. Mr. Ramaswamy also name-drops Trump while suggesting American culture should be more woke, “awaken from slumber,” “fully wakes up.” We then get a handful of bromides.
That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it. [2 US flag emojis]
The man who just spent paragraphs assigning television characters to a caste system is now lecturing us to not wallow in victimhood. Dismissing the arguments of Americans as "wallowing" would be bad enough, but someone who wants to be the elected leader of Ohio then says that citizens should not attempt to “legislate” away the hiring practices of the Obama and Biden era. Mr. Ramaswamy says this even though our current hiring practices exist solely because of legislation. DEI and race-based hiring practices exist because of legislation. The H1B system exists because of legislation. Further, the H1B system isn't some sort of open competition among the world’s workers. The H1B system is an American taxpayer subsidized program which imports people and their families while providing them with a full suite of additional taxpayer-subsidized welfare programs to help support them.
Despite Mr. Ramaswamy's protestations, we most certainly can legislate alternate hiring practices into existence. I'm confident we can do it.
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