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 opportunists of the technical right have found their first major clash: H-1B visa policies. As the two groups try to sort it out, they clash new strands of racism and xenophobia along the way, the co-grifter in chief of the Department of Government Efficiency Vivek Ramaswamy has he blessed us with a new theory why America is allegedly failing in its ability to produce elite engineers: we worshiped Stefan instead of Steve Urkel.

According to Ramaswamy, “Our American culture has revered mediocrity over excellence,” and it all goes back to 1990s sitcoms and America’s preference for the jock and prom queen over the “champion of the mathematics olympiad” or valedictorian.

“A culture that worships 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,” Ramaswamy. he tweeted publicly in a message that can be read by other people and everything.

The reason leading tech companies often employ foreign and first-generation engineers over “native” Americans is not because of an innate 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 is so incomprehensible 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 account of Family Affair. Steve Urkel was so popular with audiences that the show was rewritten to center the character. It went from an ordinary family sitcom to a sci-fi-dipped comedy centered around America’s favorite nerd. Even Stefan’s character was the product of Urkel’s whole nerd shtick. (If you are not above Family Affair Lore, Steve alters his DNA to be a cooler version of himself and woos his love interest Laura, and eventually creates a clone who can be cool guy Stefan full-time instead of asking Steve to move between the two Laura ends up choosing Steve over Stefan anyway.)

Frankly, this isn’t even the most egregious example of Ramaswamy’s piss-poor media literacy on display in this tweet. He says “More movies like Whiplash, less ‘Friends’ reruns,” presumably because he falls into the camp of people who think the abuse of JK Simmons’ character is forcing his young students on Whiplash he is justified because he pushes them to greatness instead of seeing him as a tyrannical lunatic.

Also, look, I know I’m really hammered by the media, but I swear this is the last – what a wild drive-by by Cory from The child meets the world. He has to try very hard to look cool and it just never takes for him. In the end, he is a quintessential average man who understands how to be himself. He’s certainly not jock or prom king material.

In any case. What prompted Ramaswamy to explore this outlet was an ongoing battle over H-1B visas, which allow American companies to hire foreign workers for specialty occupations and have become a commonly used tool in the technology industry to attract global talent. The main issuers of H-1B visas are almost all technology companies, and while the visas no doubt bring skilled workers into the fold and benefit the economy broadlyBig Tech companies have been too accused of using the labor tool to outsource the work while laying off domestic staff.

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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024

Trump restricted H1-B visa during his first term– a policy that the Biden administration has reversed and tweaked to make it easier to hire immigrants. But, as Trump prepares to take office again, the program appears on the cutting block.

The division between Trump loyalists and the players of the technology industry has raised its head in the course of the past week after Sriram Krishnan of a16z was called Senior Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence for the Trump White House. The appointment drew the ire of prolific racist Laura Loomer, who I believe Krishnan wants to “remove all restrictions on green card caps”. That could lead to more foreign students coming to the United States, which is bad in Loomer’s eyes. She too accused Krishnan to donate to the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris, but it turned out that she he mistook it for someone with the same namewhich seems right for his whole business.

Now Ramaswamy and his fellow Trump-aligned techies have taken to defending immigration programs for skilled workers and students that are at odds with the nationalist front of the MAGA movement. This was bound to happen, it’s just a little surprising that the war broke out before Trump even took office – and on Christmas Day, no less. I guess if your family has disowned you, you have a lot more time to argue immigration policy on Twitter during the holidays.

If there’s one thing Ramaswamy correctly identifies, though probably accidentally, it’s the jock-nerd divide. Writer John Ganz presented his “Jock/Creep” theory of fascism in 2023, and it feels quite present here. The theory posits that Americans are particularly drawn to the jock/bully archetypes for their authoritarian leaders, while the creep/loser types do the plotting behind the scenes. “The crooked try to give their actions the appearance of historical greatness, while the unfortunate look for a figure who embodies the strength they lack,” he writes.

Trump is arguably a jock in this alignment, so there’s little doubt that his supporters are drawn to that kind of energy — the very kind that Ramaswamy argues shouldn’t be lionized in American culture. Before setting out directly on the crumbling terrain beneath him, Ramaswamy served as a kind of intermediary between sportsmen and nerds: able to capture the imagination of MAGA better than any other Trump replacement, but still very much in touch with the people who are pushing the curve to the right of the tech world. Now it seems that he has cast his lot with the nerds in the eyes of MAGA.