In addition to the breathtaking wildfires in Los Angeles, the absolute headline in recent American news is undoubtedly the split and internal debate within the MAGA camp. The traditional MAGA faction, represented by rural whites, and the Silicon Valley tech elite, represented by Musk and DOGE, quickly realized that their interests were actually far apart after achieving an unprecedented electoral victory over the Democrats and completely eliminating external threats to the Democratic Party. The alliance between the two was merely built on the fragile foundation of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," and as their common enemy weakened, the rift appeared before global observers faster than anyone expected.

Origins and Direction of the MAGA Civil War

As mentioned above, the MAGA group united under Trump to oppose DEI and the deep state in the 2024 election is actually positioned at two extremes on the political spectrum. Just like the famous controversial tweet that Musk liked, in the normal distribution of IQ among Americans, the Silicon Valley elites with the highest IQ on the right and the rednecks with the lowest IQ on the left both support the Republican Party, while those with IQs around the mean support the Democratic Party. This clearly indicates that Musk is aware that the collaboration between Silicon Valley elites and rednecks working with Trump is ultimately just a temporary measure, a compromise point between the far-right MAGA and the Silicon Valley elites, precisely at the intersection of the traditional Republican establishment represented by Trump and the moderate MAGA. This alliance, filled with compromise and temporariness, is extremely fragile.

From the perspective of Silicon Valley elite entrepreneurs, the low-cost Indian and Chinese STEM labor force entering through H1B visas is essential for maintaining the competitiveness of tech companies. However, it is well known that the far-right MAGA publicly opposes illegal immigration, but in reality, they are against high-paid legal immigrants in the legal, medical, financial, IT, and semiconductor industries. Due to the systematic failure of the American public education system, the generally functionally illiterate and reading-disabled lower-class whites cannot replace these skilled professionals. Therefore, there is a significant contradiction between the Silicon Valley faction and white MAGA regarding the issue of H1B visa immigration, especially since many Indian executives in Silicon Valley have already entered the highest echelons of federal power alongside Musk.

The recent MAGA debate was triggered by a tweet from Vivek Ramaswamy, the Indian-American deputy head of the government efficiency department (DOGE):

"Top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation immigrant engineers instead of 'native' Americans, not because native Americans are inherently deficient in IQ (this is a lazy and incorrect explanation). One key factor boils down to that 'c' word: culture. Tough questions require tough answers, and if we are serious about solving this issue, we must face the truth: our American culture has long (at least since the 90s, possibly earlier) celebrated mediocrity over excellence. This situation does not start in college; it starts from a young age. A culture that celebrates prom queens over math Olympiad champions, or sports stars over outstanding graduates giving valedictorian speeches, does not produce the best engineers. A culture that celebrates Cory from 'Boy Meets World,' Zach and Slater from 'Saved by the Bell' over Screech, or Stefan from 'Family Matters' over Steve Urkel does not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know how much immigrant parents in the 90s actively limited their children's viewing time of those TV shows precisely because those shows promoted mediocrity and mocked 'nerdy' STEM kids… and their children later became very successful STEM graduates).

Watch more movies like 'Whiplash' and fewer reruns of 'Friends.' Watch more math tutoring and fewer sleepovers. Watch more weekend science competitions and fewer Saturday morning cartoons. Read more books and watch less TV. Create more and relax less. Participate in extracurricular activities and shop less. Most normal American parents are skeptical of 'those parents.' More normal American kids scoff at 'those kids.' If you grow up aspiring to be normal, you will ultimately become normal.

Now close your eyes and imagine which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) raised their children according to one pattern while another pattern raised theirs according to a different one. Be frank. In the highly competitive global talent market for tech, 'normal' does not apply. If we pretend it does, we will be struck down by China.

This could be our Sputnik moment. We have woken up from slumber before, and we can wake up again. Hopefully, Trump's election marks the beginning of a new golden age for America, but only if our culture fully awakens. This culture must once again place achievement above normalcy; excellence above mediocrity; nerdiness above conformity; diligence above laziness. This is the task we set for ourselves, rather than indulging in a victim mentality, merely hoping (or legislating) for alternative hiring practices. I believe we can do it."

A brief explanation:

'Boy Meets World' is an American teen sitcom that follows Cory Matthews' journey from childhood to adulthood; 'Saved by the Bell' primarily revolves around a group of students at Bayside High, with Zach Morris as one of the core characters, who is smart, mischievous, and often gets into trouble but always manages to solve it cleverly; Slater is the school's sports star with a straightforward personality; 'Family Matters' features Steve Urkel, a distinctive character who is a nerd, wears large glasses, dresses oddly, and behaves clumsily but is kind-hearted and smart. The article mentions 'Whiplash,' which tells the story of an ambitious drummer who continually improves and strives under the strict guidance of a demanding teacher; the "Sputnik moment" refers to the successful launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 satellite on October 4, 1957, which plunged the Western world into a period of fear and anxiety. Following this, the U.S. became alert and initiated educational programs to cultivate a new generation of engineers.

Ramaswamy, a Harvard graduate, is a protégé of Soros, a cousin of JD Vance's wife, the founder and CEO of several innovative drug companies, who once ran for president and dropped out after Trump announced his candidacy. He represents one of the most successful segments of the second-generation Brahmin immigrants, and his remarks have caused a huge uproar. MAGA supporters believe that Indians have no right to criticize American culture and education, nor to claim that rural whites have inherent cultural deficiencies in IQ; on the other hand, against the backdrop of Musk's betrayal of MAGA becoming a foregone conclusion, the fact that Ramaswamy, this Indian who is pointing fingers, and the South African immigrant Musk have become "ironclad allies," and that figures like JD Vance must even marry into his family to establish a foothold, deeply wounds the self-esteem of the MAGA community.

Objectively speaking, American rednecks indeed sacrificed their lives for the country's wars, and the traditional white Americans' issues with drug addiction, promiscuity, and widespread functional illiteracy, along with the collapse of the American public education system, exorbitant higher education costs, and the pervasive guidance of cheap entertainment, cannot be solely attributed to redneck deficiencies. However, the current reality is that the MAGA community and Rust Belt workers have been abandoned by American society; apart from their votes, they have no "united front value." Therefore, after waving flags for Trump and Musk, they have become pawns that Trump and Musk's camps can easily discard. Musk, an "illegal immigrant," directly posted such blatant content on Twitter:

"The reason I was able to come to America and build SpaceX and Tesla along with many key missions, as well as hundreds of companies that make America strong, is because of the H1B visa," which starkly denies any significance of rednecks to America, attributing all the credit for America's technological competitive advantage to H1B visa STEM talent. What MAGA cannot tolerate even more is that Trump's poster child has also liked this tweet.

Such blatant provocation and contempt have sparked a huge backlash. While elite figures like former President Trump's advisor Bannon warned Musk against getting too involved in politics and not to interfere with the process of H1B cancellation, ordinary MAGA members on the internet have also retaliated mercilessly, posing questions like:

"Why doesn't China introduce Indian immigrants?" "Why are the thresholds for H1B talent so low?" "Why do truck drivers also need to be brought in through H1B visas?" These are indeed difficult questions to answer, and the lack of reasonable explanations has led the MAGA community to launch a vigorous anti-Indian immigration movement across the U.S. Even well-known political figures like Bannon and Sanders, who belong to different camps, have taken a consistent stance against H1B. However, with H1B visa reviews already dominated by Indian-Americans and H1B visas having become an industry, reversing the trend of Indian immigration into the U.S. is an unsolvable problem from the perspectives of the current situation, the tech industry's demand for talent, inflation, and whether the costly American public education system can produce enough engineers to replace Indian immigrants. Moreover, MAGA rednecks like to boast that they are willing to die for their country, yet the enlistment rate in red states is generally lower than in blue states, making their promises seem even less credible.

It can be said that the internal debate within MAGA represents a true "hillbilly elegy": MAGA members thought that voting for Trump, Vance, and Musk would allow them to regain control in their own country, only to find that before Trump even took office, the capital elites who switched to the Republican Party once again discarded them like a used tool, burning the bridge after crossing it.