In his ex post, Vivek Ramaswamy argues that the problem isn't mass immigration but American culture itself. It's a convenient theory, but one that misses the mark entirely. Recently, Fox anchor Rachel Campos-duffy, a woman I very rarely agree with, [00:00:19] actually did an interesting and lengthy takedown of Vivek Ramaswamy over his support for the use of H-1b visas by various business owners, especially Silicon Valley tech bros, and especially his long rant against American culture and work ethic. [00:00:37] Now, Duffey started her segment with the story of Leo Pereiro, and I think this is a story that a lot of Americans can relate to. So he was actually an IT worker over at Disney, but he was getting laid off. And if you wanted to collect his bonus and his severance, [00:00:54] the only way he could do it is if he was willing to train his Replacement. A foreign worker who was brought to the country on an H-1b visa. So Pereiro said the experience demoralized him and made him want to leave [00:01:09] the IT field entirely. He said, I felt extremely un-American. I felt like I was part of destroying our economy because I had to train a replacement that was going to come here, take my job and potentially take other people's jobs. [00:01:25] So that aside, let's watch more of what Campos Duffy had to say. Americans aren't opposed to bringing in more geniuses like Elon Musk, but let's not kid ourselves into believing Disney's replacements were all budding Einsteins. These workers are willing to put up with lower pay, longer hours [00:01:44] and overall worse conditions, unable to leave their jobs without risking deportation because they want to become citizens and bring their families over through chain migration. These companies are creating a permanent underclass of foreign workers. It's a rigged game designed to create cheap labor and make it impossible [00:02:03] for American citizens to compete. This has been a problem for decades, and despite our leaders getting directly called out about it, they refuse to take action. Now, what's fascinating about this whole debate on the right end [00:02:18] of the political spectrum is the fact that Donald Trump has effectively sided with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on this. He says, I, in regard to those who are mad at him because they feel he changed his mind on immigration. He says, I didn't change my mind. [00:02:34] I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming. We need a lot of people coming in. We need a lot of people coming in. He didn't change his mind. [00:02:52] He didn't change his mind. He didn't change his mind. Oh my God. No. I think this is a brutal wake up call for a lot of Trump supporters, right? Because it's just so brazen that he's siding with the guy, the billionaire who funded his campaign. [00:03:08] This is how politics works in America. And we hate it. We hate the corruption. But let me finish this statement. Finally, he says we're going to have jobs like we've never had before. Okay. So was I'm just going to go straight to you. Before we continue on with more details to this story. Where do where to even begin with this? [00:03:27] Just that segment on Fox News, honestly, could have been words spoken by Bernie Sanders. Yes. Before 2016. Like that's literally a Bernie Sanders Bernie Kratt talking point about working conditions and the way that management [00:03:45] and capital artificially depress wages for American workers by bringing. And so, again, let's get to the, these H1 visas. Right. If they brought these folks in and automatically made them American citizens, I'm okay with that. Okay. [00:04:04] I'm cool with immigration. Just generally speaking, these people come in and get to work at Google or Facebook or whatever the hell it is. Yeah. Cool. Make them American. I'm sure they can get other jobs and, you know, be part of a nice tax base and all of that stuff. I'm cool with it. But we know that's not what happens. [00:04:20] They basically get turned into, I'm sorry, indentured servitude where they can't even leave their job. They can't even go the company that got the visa issued for them, they can't even go take their work somewhere else. They're beholden to these folks. [00:04:36] And so of course, they're willing to work longer hours. Of course they're willing to take less days off. And what do you think that does that creates an environment, a culture within that workplace. And so of course, that's why management loves it. [00:04:52] They're undercutting their workforce, their American born workforce by saying, look at these folks whose visas and livelihood and their ability to stay in America. Look at how they behave at our job. Aren't they great? You should follow suit. [00:05:07] So, you know, we shouldn't be surprised by that. And then the other thing that I think conservatives are slowly waking up to, is that you got to stand by a principle and you have to apply it always. [00:05:24] Meaning what's the principle? Billionaires unelected didn't run a campaign, should not be setting policy because they're going to set policy for themselves. There's going to be every now and again, there's going to be some stuff that overlaps for normal people was like, yeah, Elon said he didn't like immigration. [00:05:42] Yeah, okay. But the principle should always be these guys are unaccountable to anybody. Why should they have a right to dictate terms in the government. So I don't care if it's Elon Musk. I don't care if it's, you know, some of these Wall Street people that the [00:05:57] Dems seem to be so obsessed with and other business tycoons, I don't care who it is. The principle holds true. Like, these people should not have an outsized voice in government. And I totally agree with you. You brought up Bernie Sanders, so I can't help but read his tweet [00:06:13] from today where he calls out Elon Musk saying Elon Musk is wrong. The main function of the H-1b visa program is not to hire the best and the brightest, but rather to replace good paying American jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad. [00:06:30] The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make. And this is where I think that there's common ground among some on the left and a faction of Trump's base. Right. The America first base. Now, look, some of them use rhetoric that I disagree with. [00:06:48] I have no malice in my heart for foreign workers or foreigners, period. But I do have malice in my heart for billionaires and for these corporations who screw over American workers. Okay. And instead bring in workers from abroad that they can abuse, [00:07:04] that they can pay far less. And look, imagine doing the work, going to college, digging yourself into that debt to get the degree necessary to get hired for one of these Silicon Valley jobs, and then getting laid off before you leave, [00:07:22] you got to train the foreign worker that they brought from another country, or else you're not going to get your severance pay, because that's what's happening right now in the country. And I understand that resentment and that anger that people are feeling. And so I'm so curious to see how this plays out, because unlike 2016, [00:07:42] I am noticing that there are members of Trump's base who are willing to criticize him pretty viciously if he's not going along with what he promised to do And in this case, this is an America first. If you're going to support a an abused worker visa program [00:08:00] to the detriment of the American people, you know, this faction of his support supporters are going to speak out. They've been speaking out. And I can't believe we're watching a Fox News segment right now. Insane, showing concern for American workers like. [00:08:15] Workers rights, working conditions. Like what? I love it, I love it, I'll take it. So let's pivot to the culture war element to this, because Duffy was furious at the fact that Vivek Ramaswamy essentially engaged in this lengthy [00:08:33] Twitter thread or X thread, claiming that American workers are essentially lazy bums and their work ethic isn't great, and so they have no choice but to bring in foreign workers because their work ethic is much better. So, as mentioned earlier, Campos-duffy went off on Ramaswamy's [00:08:51] takedown of American culture. So if you've forgotten what he said, here are a few of the excerpts from that long rant. He said our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long. By the way, productivity in America just keeps shooting up, shooting up, [00:09:09] shooting up, shooting up. But okay, let me continue. 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. [00:09:30] If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve. 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. [00:09:49] Look, I'm so sick of, like, the China fear mongering. - Yeah. - Yeah. Like the boogeyman utilized to beat American workers to submission. So compost Duffy's response is interesting because on one hand, it covers the usual, [00:10:04] like Fox talking points about cultural Marxism and the like. But on the other hand, she also states that like, there's more to life than making big corporations. A lot of money. I know, I know, it's crazy. So let's watch. [00:10:20] American culture gave the world electricity. Airplanes, cars, Elvis, the internet. Rocky Balboa and Star Wars. What we're witnessing now isn't the failure of American culture, but the deliberate erosion of it. [00:10:36] A demoralization campaign fueled by decades of mass immigration and an education system poisoned by cultural Marxism? Sadly, we're replacing American goodness with Godlessness. Some of his newest members envision a cold tech and corporate future for us. [00:10:55] When that fails to appreciate the humanity and vulnerability of our own citizens, secularism, transhumanism and I will never satisfy the soul. America is not a sports team, and winning in the stock market is not my [00:11:12] definition of success for America. I can't believe I just heard that last sentence, especially especially I don't I don't know what to make of it. - It's just so. - Much. There's just so much going on. [00:11:28] So one of the the more interesting parts for me watching this play out is the culture war on American culture. Like, if we could just rewind when that whole thing about the Haitian immigrants [00:11:43] in, in Ohio was going on and, you know, some of the least foaming at the mouth Klansmen, sort of people on the right. We're pointing out, like, look like there are people who aren't just racists. It's like a bunch of people coming to their neighborhood, and they feel like things are changing, and this is not what they signed up for. [00:12:01] They didn't give an okay. And they feel like, you know, things are happening under their feet. This idea that, like their culture is now changing with Vivek Ramaswamy just said is like, no, that's exactly what we want. We think American culture is deficient. [00:12:18] We want to replace it with an Indian culture. And by the way, all of the worst parts of it and none of the good. Okay, nothing about community, nothing about like, a sort of sense of belonging and togetherness and all of that. [00:12:33] Just this idea that there are Indian workers who are willing to work themselves to the nub, and that's what we should follow. Nothing else about, an Indian culture. And that's just so crazy to me because, you know, to me, I always make the the sort of argument about immigration is like, these people [00:12:49] are just going to become Americans. That's just what it is. That's just how our culture is. They're going to end up eating hot dogs. They're going to end up, you know, buying way too much. Ben and Jerry's at the freaking supermarket. Maybe I'm telling on myself, but like, they're just going to become Americans. [00:13:05] That's just what we do here. But what Vivek and Ellen to what they're saying is like, no, we need to change American culture. - They're dissing America as an idea. - Yes, yes, 100%. [00:13:20] These are these sicko. You know, I have this no love lost between me and these tech people. Like these people don't believe in nations. Just the idea of being patriotic and prioritizing the people of a nation of nationhood itself, they think is stupid. [00:13:37] They think, you know, this is some pig headed nonsense from the plebs, like they don't believe in some sense of belonging and being part of it. And guess what? I'm not surprised. These freaking dorks are anti-social. That's why you didn't have any friends. [00:13:52] And the reason why Vivek is mad, I'm telling y'all, is because some hot sorority chicks in college didn't give him any play, and he's still pissed about it. That's all he's talking about. This idea that we didn't love Screech and Urkel enough. [00:14:08] - People love those characters. - Hell yeah. I mean, it's insane. This is all just a personal vendetta of a bunch of freaking dorks. Well, look and look, when it comes to Elon Musk, that dork is looking to maximize profits. Like, I don't care that he's, like, already the richest man in the world. [00:14:24] Like, for them, it's never enough. And he is willing to sell out American workers in order to maximize his profits. And I think, you know, again, a faction of MAGA has woken up to that, and I'm glad that they've woken up to that, and I'm glad they're speaking out against it. And look, I have a few other things to say. [00:14:42] Number one, I haven't really heard much from populist JD Vance on this. Could it be because Donald Trump has sided with Elon Musk on it? - You know the. - Vibes. Okay. So that's point number one. Point number two is so if you're working so hard that you're almost like sleeping [00:15:02] at the office every night, how exactly is that going to help with our lower birth rate problem. Like is he inviting people to knock boots on his desk over at Tesla? Like, it's just it's Elon Musk is brilliant in a lot of ways, but he's [00:15:21] also not brilliant in a lot of ways. And this is an example of that, right? He has difficulty seeing outside of his own like lived experience. People are not going to be able to raise families if they're forced to work [00:15:37] in the way that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk demand they work. And honestly, the best thing in life is not spending as much time in the office as humanly possible, or making as much money as humanly possible. It is spending time with your family. But that's the thing. [00:15:53] If you're working like that, you're not able to spend time with your family and you're not able to raise your own kids. And that's not the kind of life Americans want to live. And I support them in not wanting to live that kind of life. I totally agree with them in not wanting to live that kind of life. And if Americans are working hard, if they're going to school, [00:16:09] if they're getting their education, they're doing everything right, and they're undercut by foreign workers because they get to, corporations get to abuse them and pay them less. Well, that's wrong, and I'm glad that people are speaking out against it. That's not to say that the entire program should be eliminated. [00:16:25] I think there's still a role for H-1b visas, especially if there's a shortage of workers in a specialized field. But Americans should be considered first for those jobs, and there needs to be more protection for American workers when it comes to abuses of the system. [00:16:41] And to be sure, there are many abuses of the system.