The unholy alliance between the Trump-loyal MAGA right and the opportunistic grifters of the Tech Right has found its first major clash: H-1B visa policies. As the two groups try to sort themselves out, they stumble new threads of racism and xenophobia On the way, the Department of Government Efficiency co-grifter-in-chief Vivek Ramaswamy has we are blessed with a new theory for why America is supposedly falling in its ability to produce elite engineers: we worship Stefan instead of Steve Urkel.

According to Ramaswamy, “Our American culture values ​​modesty,” and it all started with 1990s sitcoms and America’s preference for the jock and prom queen over the “math olympiad champ” or valedictorian.

“A culture that honors 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 Tweet publicly in a message that can be read by other people and everyone.

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over “native” Americans is not because of a natural American IQ deficiency (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 confusing that it’s hard to know where to start, but I think it’s worth starting with the fact that it’s not an accurate account of About the Family. Steve Urkel was so popular with viewers that the show was rewritten to center around the character. It went from a run-of-the-mill family sitcom to a sci-fi-dipped comedy centered around America’s favorite nerd. Even the character Stefan is a product of Urkel’s whole nerd shtick. (If you are not in About the Family Lore, Steve changes his DNA to become a cooler version of himself and attracts his love interest Laura, and eventually he creates a clone who becomes the cool guy Stefan full time. instead of Steve having to change between the two. Laura chooses Steve over Stefan.)

Frankly, this isn’t even the worst example of Ramaswamy’s piss-poor media literacy on display in this tweet. He said “More movies like Whiplash, less remakes of ‘Friends,'” probably because he falls into the camp of people who think the abuse JK Simmons’ character inflicted on his young students of Whiplash justified because it pushed them to greatness rather than seeing him as a tyrannical fool.

Also—look, I know I’m really hammering the media but I swear this is the end—what a wild drive Cory has been from Boy Meets World. He has to try so hard to look cool and it just isn’t necessary for him. He’s finally a pretty average guy who knows how to handle himself. He was never jock or prom king material.

Even so. What prompted Ramaswamy to cancel this acquisition was an ongoing battle over H-1B visas, which allow American companies to hire foreign workers for specialty jobs and become a commonly used tool in the tech industry to attract global talent. The top H-1B visa issuers are almost all technology companies, and while the visas are undoubtedly bring skilled workers into the fold and benefit the economy at largeBig Tech companies have also been created accused of using employment tools to outsource work while laying off house staff.

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

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024

Trump banned H1-B visas in his first term—a policy that has been reversed by the Biden administration and tweaked to make it easier to hire immigrants. But, as Trump prepares to take office again, the program appears on the chopping block.

The divide between Trump loyalists and players in the Tech industry reared its head last week after Sriram Krishnan by a16z is named senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence for the Trump White House. The appointment drew the ire of many racist Laura Loomer, who bELIEVE Krishnan wants to “remove all restrictions on green card caps.” That leads to more foreign students coming to the US, which is bad in Loomer’s eyes. He too accused Krishnan to donate to the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris, but it turned out to be him he was confused for someone with the same namewhich seems to be right in his whole deal.

Now Ramaswamy and his fellow Trump-aligned tech bros have taken to defending immigration programs for skilled workers and students as they find themselves at odds with the nationalist front of the MAGA movement. As it happens, it’s a little surprising that the war broke out before Trump took office—and on Christmas day, no less. I guess if your family disowns you, you’ll have plenty of time to argue immigration policy on Twitter during the holidays.

If there’s one thing Ramaswamy rightly identifies, though not by accident, it’s the jock-nerd divide. Writer John Ganz presents his “Jock/Creep” theory of fascism in 2023, and it’s pretty prescient here. The theory posits that Americans are more drawn to jock/bully archetypes for their authoritarian leaders, while creeps/loser types do the plotting behind the scenes. “The dull seek to give their actions the appearance of historical grandeur, while the dowdy seek a person who embodies the strength they lack,” he wrote.

Trump is undoubtedly a jock in this alignment, so there’s little question that his supporters gravitate to that kind of energy—the kind that Ramaswamy says shouldn’t be lionized in American culture. Before setting himself squarely on the broken ground beneath him, Ramaswamy served as a kind of mediator between the jocks and the nerds: able capture the imagination of MAGA better than any Trump replacement, but still associated with people who are pushing the right curve in the tech world. Now it appears that he shares the nerds in the eyes of MAGA.