Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday slammed American culture for valuing "mediocrity over excellence," claiming it has had a strong impact on the tech industry.
"A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," he wrote. "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."
"Most normal American parents look skeptically at 'those kinds of parents,'" Ramaswamy said. "More normal American kids view such 'those kinds of kids' with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve." The sentiments drew outrage from Republican former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who asserted "there is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture."