Ramaswamy posted a lengthy item on X asserting that Americans are lazy, dumb and uneducated – while immigrant workers are harder working, smarter and better educated.
This in turn erupted on X into a discussion about the H-1B temporary visa (it is not an immigration visa but a work visa), importing more foreign workers, tech age discrimination, tech average salaries, and eventually into claims that foreign workers are just better than Americans (often based on random assertions – not facts). Then more piled on saying those opposed to importing temporary workers are racist MAGA hat wearing supremacists. It went downhill from there.
Here is a summary of the visa issue situation: MSM Pounces As ‘MAGA Vs Technocrats’ H1-Bomb Explodes Ahead Of Trump Inauguration | ZeroHedge
The key assertion is Americans are stupid and lazy: Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy: You’re ‘lazy,’ ‘mediocre,’ ‘retarded’ (This is also a long-standing popular meme from media talking heads and politicians.) Our schools are terrible and do not celebrate STEM achievers (this is false – check out FIRST Robotics in which thousands of high schools participate in competitive robotics design and build competitions.)
Musk posted comments implying similar: Elon Musk Endorses Post Suggesting Americans Are ‘Retarded’ – by endorsing a tweet saying that (some say the X account Autism Capital is someone outside the U.S.). Musk appears to have later removed his tweet – but by then, the damage was done.
“Subtards”
What does “Subtard” Mean?
Per Musk’s own Grok AI engine:
The term “subtard” as used by Elon Musk on X appears to be a derogatory blend of “sub” (suggesting below or inferior) and “tard” (a shortened, offensive form of “retard”). Based on the context from posts found on X, Musk has used this term to refer to Americans, particularly in discussions around immigration and job skills:
- Some posts suggest that Musk used “subtard” to criticize Americans, especially in relation to debates about skilled labor and H1-B visa policies, implying that they are less capable or intelligent compared to immigrants from other countries, specifically mentioning India in this context.
- There are also claims that he used it to describe those who oppose mass immigration or the replacement of American workers with foreign tech talent.
- The term was used in a context where Musk was seemingly aligning with those advocating for more open immigration policies for skilled workers, suggesting a view that certain Americans are not up to the task or are “below standard” in intelligence or work ethic.
Given these interpretations from X posts, “subtard” is understood as an insult, suggesting that some Americans are intellectually inferior or less suitable for certain jobs compared to immigrants. However, it’s crucial to approach this with caution as social media can amplify or distort messages, and individual posts might not reflect Musk’s full perspective or intent.
By the end of the week, Musk went nuclear: Elon Musk’s Vow to ‘Go to War’ Raises Eyebrows. Musk is asserting he will use his immense power to usurp Democracy in order to obtain his outcomes.
Musk Allegedly Worked in the U.S. in violation of Immigration Law
Musk, then a dual citizen of South Africa and Canada, studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and then started grad school at Stanford University, but quit that almost immediately and began working. His student visa did not permit working in the U.S.: Elon Musk denies Washington Post report that he worked illegally in the US | CNN
As head of Tesla, Musk has laid off thousands of workers and replaced many of them with temporary imported H-1B visa workers per the media: Tesla replaces laid-off U.S. workers with foreigners using visas pushed by Musk: report
Interestingly, his SpaceX company is a successful business – by law, because of space and national security issues, SpaceX hires almost entirely only U.S. citizens. And does quite well. (The company has hired a total of 17 H-1B visa workers over 13 years – the 3-year visa may be renewed once and can be extended if Green Card application is pending.)
But Tesla cannot function unless they hire thousands of temporary workers from abroad under the H-1B (and Tesla pays many of them poorly).
Musk is a globalist. As noted in this essay, Musk would go elsewhere if he found some place better; he has no allegiance to the U.S. It is simply a good place, for now, to further his own ambitions.
Musk Backs Off – Somewhat
The push back against Musk was swift and data driven – with many pointing out the H-1B visa database showed Tesla hiring skilled workers and paying some in the US $70k range – hardly the salaries paid to “best and brightest”. Further SpaceX hires only U.S. citizens (about one H-1B per year since 2011) – and is a successful business. But Tesla cannot function unless it hires imported temporary workers on the H-1B visa? None of this made sense.
Why Elon Musk has backpedalled on H-1B visa after MAGA fallout
Vivek Ramaswamy Has a Life of Privilege
Vivek Ramaswamy was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. His Dad was an engineer and patent attorney, and his Mom a psychiatrist. He came from wealth and is a spoiled rich kid:
His conservative Christian piano teacher, who gave him private lessons from elementary through high school, also influenced his social views.[6] He spent many summer vacations traveling to India with his parents.[16] In high school, Ramaswamy was a nationally ranked tennis player.[20]
….
The private school he attended costs $16,000 per year today. Per news reports, he was pushed down a stairway at a public school; months later he had hip surgery and thinks that could have been a factor. After that incident, he transferred to a private school.
Ramaswamy attended public schools through eighth grade.[6][21] He then attended Cincinnati’s St. Xavier High School, a [private] Catholic school affiliated with the Jesuit order,[6][22] graduating as valedictorian in 2003.[6][23]
In 2007, Ramaswamy graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in biology, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[24
His attendance at Harvard was funded by the Bank of Mom and Dad.
He later went on to earn a JD from Yale (paid with a merit scholarship from the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship) and is accused of shady business practices: Billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy is a Wall Street speculator accused of pump-and-dump schemes, not a scientist – Geopolitical Economy Report (Read the whole piece).
Ramaswamy misled about his parent’s immigration status
Vivek Ramaswamy reveals his Indian father is NOT a U.S. citizen and hasn’t taken the U.S. citizenship test | Daily Mail Online. His parents were legal immigrants, but not U.S. citizens at the time of his birth in the US., as he had previously claimed. Ramaswamy gained US citizenship through “birthright” (being born in the U.S.). It is unknown if Ramaswamy has dual US/India citizenship as he has refused to answer that question (India and the US both permit dual citizenship and by virtue of his parents, he is eligible for citizenship in India.)
Pushback Against Ramaswamy
There has been much pushback against Ramaswamy over his comments:
- Vivek Ramaswamy Dragged After Wild Rant on How American Workers Suck
- Vivek Ramaswamy Is Uninvited From My Sleepover
- UPDATE January 2025: Vivek Ramaswamy Is Out of the Trump Admin After Claiming American Workers Have a ‘Culture’ Problem
Immigrants Think We Had It Easy
Some immigrants (and some non-U.S. citizens who live outside the U.S.) piled into the “Americans are dumb and lazy” meme, posting claims that are not true.
As nearly all comments point out, 99% of Americans do not have the above privileges. He thinks they have these privileges because he is, himself, an elitist who only hangs out with other elites.
Link to his original on X. I’ve been blogging on my Travel blog about the importance of global experience and legal immigration – but immigrants posting nonsense like the above are turning Americans against immigration and immigrants. The lack of gratefulness is inexcusable. His LinkedIn Profile.
The next item is stupidity on steroids – Everyone’s educational attainment is far, far higher in the U.S. today. Incredibly, half of the U.S. adult population was not a high school graduate until the 1960s! Most people do not know this.
Another stupid comment – if H-1B visas are given only to the brightest (they are not given to the best and brightest but mostly to average tech workers), we are then comparing the top 1-10% of Indians to 100% of Americans. A bogus comparison.
We are pushing the view that Americans are stupid and immigrants are better:
Temporary imported workers and legal immigrants bash the country in which they are a guest.
Then we have super wealthy privileged elite Americans who admit they give preference to immigrants over Americans because racism – and judging people by their group characteristics is hip – Grant Cardone’s comments indicate he may be a racist and narcissist:
Does American Culture Celebrate Mediocrity Over Excellence? (Right wing politics blogger bashes America as stupid and lazy).
This summarizes the problem – and the terrible messaging that is being issued:
Peter Bocs is not an American and is Wrong on Every Point
- Elon Musk came to the U.S. on a student visa, dropped out of Stanford grad school and is alleged to have worked for a time without a visa authorization.
- Jensen Huang, of Nvidia, immigrated to the U.S. at age 9 and graduated from Aloha High School in Beaverton, OR.
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, immigrated to the U.S. at age 6.
None of them entered the U.S. on an H-1B visa.
Peter Bocs is not American – he’s from the UK. He runs a media/journalism business, and every fact is wrong.
It’s now de rigueur for immigrants and those with global experience to bash Americans, and fabricate lies, like the above.
Real People
As an American who has worked very hard and is very educated (all paid for myself) – but who lacks today’s hip global experience, I found the comments surrounding this issue highly offensive.
I, the lazy, dumb, uneducated (or as Musk puts it “retarded”) American had to work from age 10 onward (yard jobs), eventually working doing retail warehouse stacking and clean up, then a job basically doing heavy lifting at a hospital. My parents required I save at least 50% of my earnings to pay for college (I save more).
I attended public schools – which Ramaswamy himself said were “not particularly great,” (he spent his last 4 years at a private high school).
I did not do extracurricular activities, such as sports, because I was working. I did not travel in the summers – I attended summer school and worked. I also worked while in college. I lived at home the first two years and attended the local public state college – which did not even offer my major subject (computer science so I was an engineering major then). I then transferred to another public university that offered the CS degree; bought my first car, a used Toyota Corolla, paid for myself, of course.
I had a concussion at age 5 that put me in speech therapy for 18+ months, and a 5″ skull fracture by age 12 (treatment consisted of being x-rayed 5 days later, and then sent home to lie in bed for weeks, unable to eat, not recognizing family members). I missed A LOT of school. I missed about 1/3d of my 9th grade school year due to influenza, pneumonia and a systemic Staph A infection that, due to a bad doctor, was left to fester almost the entire school year. The effects of head injuries – traumatic brain injuries or TBI – would be compounded with 4 more concussions later in life – and no treatment for TBI until I was 58 years old.
I did not graduate from high school, but despite all of this, I went on to earn a BS in computer science, 100% paid for by myself. Later in life, I completed an MBA and an MS in software engineering, also paid for by me.
In Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s world, I am the lazy, dumb, uneducated American.
We watch too many sitcoms on TV, they say, and the media morons pile on: The decline of American civilization: There’s more bad TV than ever; it’s available everywhere; and it’s making us fat, lazy, selfish and stupid | The Seattle Times. (What do I watch? Mostly Netflix shows in Norwegian, for language practice. Probably not what you were expecting from a dumb American? We ditched TV in 2011.)
Their comments are highly offensive and untrue. Yet other ungrateful, elitists with international ties support these assertions. For example, Ian Miles Cheong is a right-wing social media commentator from Malaysia:
To well off internationals, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much education we obtained, we are all American retards.
Musk and Ramaswamy are global elitists with immense privileges. Their comments were unwarranted and will not encourage Americans to pursue tech careers.
The Media
Almost uniformly, the media spun this as a story of “MAGA” versus Musk, Ramaswamy, or a “Civil War” among “MAGA”. This has little to do with “MAGA” – yet the media implies those of us who found their comments offensive are “MAGA”, which is not true.
The discussion spin has broken into 4 main camps:
- Musk, Ramaswamy: Americans are dumb, lazy and “retarded”, “Immigrants smarter, Americans dumb”. A surprising number of immigrants or persons outside the U.S. piled on, implying the same.
- Media: It’s MAGA Civil War, and everyone involved is MAGA
- Social media: First-person accounts of what goes on in tech – its corrupt and abusive
- Racism: Anyone opposed to importing lots of foreign workers is racist – or a xenophobe. No other possibilities.
There is no media discussion about the immigrants who have piled on to the “Bash America” theme.
About 3/4ths of H-1B visas go to Indians, and most of the remaining go to people from China. There are apparently few “top 1%” engineers in any other countries of the world. Because of this, one of the spins is that anyone questioning Musk or Ramaswamy, or the H-1B visa problems, is accused of racism towards Indians.
Oddly enough, from the Washington Post, a study found Indians are among the least racially tolerant peoples which turns the allegations on their head. From WaPo: The most and least racially tolerant countries
My Experience
I have worked side by side with workers from over 20 countries – from every continent except Antarctica (my cousin’s daughter, plus a good friend of mine have worked in Antarctica! Does that count? 🙂 ). Many of my Indian co-workers were among the nicest people I have ever known in my life! Seriously!
On my Travel and Global Issues blog I have been unequivocally pro legal immigration.
Musk and Ramaswamy are Racist
The perspective pushed by Musk, Ramaswamy and a surprising number of people – including unfortunately many immigrants – is that Americans are dumb, and immigrants are smarter and just better. That attitude is racist – judging people by their immutable group characteristics rather than their individual character.
“America is Awful, Americans are Dumb and Lazy”
The U.S. has adopted a mindset that “America is awful, Americans are dumb and lazy, and everything is better in other countries.” A corollary is all immigrants are smarter and harder working than Americans.
This is the “I hate America” meme that is prevalent – it makes no sense. Yet is the major focus of media too – who publish and endless series of “I moved abroad stories’, almost all of which have the same theme: “America is awful, so this individual/couple/family moved to country X where everything is better“. For examples of the “I hate America” memes – see Part 1: The myth that Americans can just move abroad for a better life and Part 2: The myth that Americans can just move abroad for a better life.
Not only are these memes false, but they omit that the majority of people who left the U.S. were highly privileged by their virtue of growing up in the U.S.! They tend to be wealthy, often attended expensive private schools and elite universities, and have a variety of privileges ranging from pretty privilege (1/3 of the stories are about attractive, educated at elite US universities, young American women who obtained their visa or citizenship by marrying a foreigner) to immigration privilege (about 1/3 had prior dual citizenship or a right of descent residency/citizenship privilege due to their own ancestry).
Contrary to the media memes that everyone is leaving, only about 2-3% of Americans live abroad at any time, and close to zero percent (0.7% to 1.3%) retire abroad.
