The New Republic recently blasted an ex-GOP candidate and co-leader of that “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) outfit with the headline “Vivek Ramaswamy Dragged After Wild Rant On How American Workers Suck,” by Malcolm Ferguson. Ramaswamy is getting crushed by liberals and conservatives alike for his caustic comments.
While I think some of what Ramaswamy tweeted is right, I disagree with the notion that American workers suck. What Vivek needs to realize is that America is a little more pro-nerd than he thinks, and that some of our nerds do some of what he says we need less of.
This started when Ramaswamy took to Twitter to explain why he thinks tech companies prefer foreign-born workers over Americans. BTW, Elon Musk says we need more immigrant workers.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers. 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,” Ramaswamy wrote in a lengthy post on X,” as reported by Ferguson, as well as plenty of other outlets.
“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.’…..A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness. That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence,” he notes in Ferguson’s story (wonder what he means by alternative hiring practices).
Here’s where I agree with Ramaswamy. We should value math Olympiad champs, valedictorians, math tutoring, weekend science competition books, creating, extracurriculars, achievement, excellence, nerdiness, and hard work. We could also be a little more pro-teacher.
Here’s where I think Vivek could do better. We do value nerd culture. And it also doesn’t mean we shouldn’t value prom queens, jocks, cartoons, TV, and being chill sometimes.
In our political science program, we have Homecoming Queens and Kings, as well as jocks (male and female), who love crunching numbers. They work statistics into papers even when you don’t require it. One softball player got her engineering degree and then double-majored in political science. Our college gave the biggest science nerd I’ve ever taught in political science a top alumni award. She is currently in Antarctica installing a comm link, while working on her Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering. We have football-playing Ph.Ds in political science and math, as well as basketball players with public health degrees, with all races and genders included among them. These aren’t exceptions among those I teach. These are my students!
Ramaswamy’s pop culture examples seem to be frozen in the amber of the era of Jurassic Park (which came out in 1993). Even non-science nerds today are totally into “Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon,” “Star Trek,” “Oppenheimer,” “Mythbusters,” “Doctor Who,” and their reruns. They know who Neil DeGrasse Tyson and “Bill Nye The Science Guy” are. Science is cool in the USA, and it’s been that way going back to the days of Benjamin Franklin.
As my mum always says, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Vivek could mend fences with the MAGA folks as well as liberals. He should realize that while he’s right that we can always use more nerds, some American nerds can do the cool kid things too. The U.S. shows more love to the wonderful science geeks than he realizes, especially when we respect the hard work our teachers do to make our students great. If he and other political elites who lecture Americans on education and parenting want more nerds, they need to learn that in the USA, you don’t have to force a kid to choose to be a nerd or be a non-nerd! Our students can do both.
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John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.