Even in an era where we’ve become accustomed to constant thundering, thanks largely to the orange thunderer-in-chief, Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 Boxing Day rant was the oratorical equivalent of a bull in a china shop.
In a remarkable social media post that would gladden the heart of any Tiger Mom, and Vivek even trained under the OG Tiger Mom at Yale, he lashed out at American culture for “venerating mediocrity over excellence”, watching too many Friends reunions and hanging out too much at the mall. The reason Silicon Valley preferred H-1Bs to Americans, Vivek argued, without saying it out loud, was that Americans had become too lazy. In a movement like MAGA that is always looking to find an outsider to other, Ramaswamy’s outburst suggested that this non-Christian brown man doth protest too much. It might have been one of the few times that Ramaswamy’s silver tongue got him into a little too much trouble for not being economical with the truth about his thoughts.
