Ramaswamy blames the U.S. culture of “mediocrity” for tech companies hiring foreign-born engineers

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday criticized American culture for valuing “mediocrity over excellence,” claiming it has had a strong influence on the tech industry.

Ramaswamy, who will soon co-head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), blamed that culture in a lengthy “. He advised Americans to face the “truth,” arguing, “Hard questions require hard answers.”

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympian or the athlete over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote. “A culture that worships Cory from ‘Boy Meets World’ or Zach & Slater before Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell’ or ‘Stefan’ before Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters’ will not produce the best engineers.”

Ramaswamy, whose parents immigrated to the United States, added that he knew of “several groups of immigrant parents” who restricted their children’s consumption of such television shows “precisely because they promoted mediocrity.”

“Most normal American parents are skeptical of ‘such parents,'” Ramaswamy said. “More normal American children view such children with contempt. If you grow up striving for normality, you will achieve normality.”

“’Normal’ is not enough in a highly competitive global market for technical talent. And if we act as if it is, China will hand over our opinions to us,” he concluded. “This can be our Sputnik moment.” We have woken up from sleep before and can do it again.

The sentiments sparked outrage from South Carolina’s former Republican governor, Nikki Haley, who claimed: “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture.”

“All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have,” Haley wrote in response to Ramaswamy. “We should invest in and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers.”

Elon Musk, who will also be co-chief executive of DOGE, wrote in an “.

“It’s like using the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your entire team (which is mostly Americans!) win the NBA,” Musk said. “Viewing America as a professional sports team that has been winning for a long time and wants to continue to win is the correct mental construction.”