Originals vs Newcomers

The People & the Aristocrats

With the Trump inauguration rolling around the corner, conservatives, in theory, have many reasons to be excited. Although the key advantage of the “trifecta” (presidency and both chambers of Congress) has been discussed at length, most people’s optimism derives from a gut feeling that this could be the beginning of a pendulum swing in the opposite direction.

After roughly six decades of liberalism pervading society, this seems like the genesis of a similar, if not longer, tenure for the right wing.

However, the recently ignited debate about H-1B visas indicate that the “right wing,” like most factions in any context, is not a monolith and will have disagreements on policy issues.

When diving a bit deeper into this issue, the right wing becomes perfectly divided into two groups: MAGA 1.0 and MAGA 2.0.

Summed up concisely, MAGA 1.0 consists of nationalistic American patriots who identified Trump in 2016 (or maybe 2020) as a figure who could potentially put a dent into the deep state that constantly pushed globalist policies.

MAGA 2.0 represents the strange shift of Silicon Valley tech moguls have seemingly abandoned their Bay Area liberalism and hopped on the Trump train.

Examples include Elon Musk, David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, Jacob Helberg, and more.

Some might say something along the lines of “it’s good to have them on our side now” or “that’s how you know we’re winning the culture war!”

But it’s really not that simple and the H-1B debate is a perfect example of that.

For context, the H1B visa, created in 1990, allows companies to employ foreign workers in specialized sectors like IT, tech, engineering, finance, science, and more.

Most of the workers hired using the H1B system tend to come from India, as in 2023, 72% of the approved H1B visas were for Indian nationals.

While H1B recipients can technically work in any of the fields listed above, the vast majority tend to work in the IT and tech world.

Where things get controversial is when one digs into the data and finds that H1B’s receive less compensation than their American counterparts.

The average salary for an H1B is just under $120K with roughly 75% of them receiving under $150K and just 2.5% of them making $250K.

I know what you’re thinking: “$120K is pretty good money…what’s all the fuss about?”

While $120K is a solid paycheck, in the world of highly skilled tech professionals, usually located in the Bay Area, it’s not as much as you’d think.

When directly comparing the median pay of Americans to H1Bs for specific job titles, a clear discrepancy arises.

Software engineer: $161K for Americans and $129K for H1Bs.

Software developer: $132K for Americans and $100K for H1Bs.

Java developer: $160K for Americans and $92K for H1Bs.

One does not need to be an economist to realize that there is a clear incentive for large tech firms to hire internationally rather than domestically.

H1Bs, funnily enough, used to be an issue that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump actually agreed on.

Bernie asserted recently that the “main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but to replace good-paying American jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad” (rare W for Bernie).

2016 Trump (man I miss that guy) echoed a similar sentiment: “I know the H-1B [system] very well, and it’s something that I frankly use and shouldn’t be allowed to use…I have to do what I have to do, [but] it’s very bad for our workers and it’s unfair for our workers.”

In 2020, he proclaimed that “as we speak, we’re finalizing H-1B regulations so that no American worker is ever replaced again.”

Then, all of a sudden, in 2024, he had a “change of heart,” and now says things like “I’ve always felt that we need competent people coming into our country…we need smart people coming into our country, and we need a lot of people to come in.”

Do we really need a lot of people to come in Don? Or is that just what your new Silicon Valley buddies are whispering in your ear?

This brings us back to the MAGA 1.0 and 2.0 problem: although the former has the latter outnumbered, has more tenure, and is more loyal, it’s clear which group will see their ideals solidified into actual policy.

In addition to their concentration of power through their massive donations, they also have guys on the inside as well.

Elon and Vivek will be heading the Department of Government Efficiency, as everyone has come to know. In addition, Sacks (Chair of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Tech & Crypto Czar) and Sriram Krishnan (senior policy advisor for AI) will have formal roles in the Trump admin as well.

While the H-1B issue is not directly implicated for most of those positions, it’s clear that they will be advocating for it.

Nothing is more obvious than the fact that Thiel, Musk, and the rest of the PayPal mafia directly benefits from cheap, foreign labor to fill tech jobs while MAGA 1.0 has to suffer the consequences.

Because of this, MAGA 1.0 is trying to fight back with the only weapon they have: X.

After receiving pressure from 1.0, Calacanis, a notable SV angel investor, recently tweeted: “I told everyone the MAGA extremes were brigading me constantly, and they said I was making it up…MAGA 1.0 is trolling 2.0, and it’s obvious these folks have large bot armies to create the appearance of chaos.”

Firstly, it’s comical that all it takes is a bit of heat from for everyone who holds the opposing view on H-1Bs to magically turn into a leader of bot armies.

Secondly, what these guys don’t understand is that, although I’ve been utilizing the terms, there really is no MAGA 1.0 and 2.0; you simply have the real conservative base and the handful of powerful tech entrepreneurs and investors that had the wherewithal to realize liberalism, at least for now, seemed to have run its course and opportunistically jumped ship.

These types of figures care simply about power and how it can be seized and then exerted for their benefit.

They want us to forget the recent past when they all agreed that Trump was Hitler, a threat to democracy, and whatever other headline they were consuming from New York Times simply because they, to their credit, saw that the tides were shifting.

Even Zuckerberg is realizing the situation, as the combination of his visit to Mar-a-Lago, altering Facebook’s algorithm to be more suitable to right-wing opinions like X, and appointing Dana White, UFC founder and close friend of Trump, to Meta’s board clearly shows that Zuck is following in the footsteps of his SV bros.

All of this is relevant because there is a clear dichotomy between the paleoconservative ideals based in Christian theology that most real conservatives advocate for versus the quasiliberal worldview that guys like Elon, who literally became a conservative yesterday, believe.

Speaking of Elon, although it took some time, he is finally showing his true colors.

Speech is Never Free

I was always skeptical of his overnight left-wing to right-wing transformation and would constantly attempt to identify his ulterior motives.

While many of his true objectives are still hidden, it’s clear he’s not the freedom of speech hero many were quick to anoint him as; he simply wants to be the arbiter of what speech is allowed and isn’t allowed. He simply shifted the Overton window slightly and allowed right-wing talking points to increase in popularity by amplifying them using his massive platform.

On the other hand, the real right-wing dissidents and their ideas aren’t so safe.

Major talking heads like Jake Shields, a former MMA fighter with 830K followers, Myron Gaines, a debate host with 208K followers, Stew Peters, a political talk show host with 763K, Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis, a former doctor that discusses politics and health with 1.4M, and more are actively being targeted for their anti H-1B stances.

These figures have had their checkmarks stripped, pages demonetized, and character limit reduced.

But no figure has been more outspoken about mass legal immigration through the H1B system, and subsequently attacked, than Nicholas J. Fuentes.

Fuentes is dangerous in the eyes of Musk because he connects well with the youth, has a large and loyal fan base, is sharp and articulate, and happens to be a real conservative that contradicts the views on important issues like immigration, Israel, and other issues conservatives are supposed to toe the party line on.

To backtrack a bit, a major reason for Fuentes’ popularity is a handful of accounts that are solely dedicated to posting clips of his livestreams. Similar to Andrew Tate’s strategy from a few years ago, clips from these pages oftentimes get more impressions than the posts from his own page. Realistically, these types of accounts are most likely ran by members of his team.

This is pertinent information because, rather than going for his main account and possibly sparking outrage, Musk cleverly went on a banning spree of nearly all of the accounts that regularly post his content.

With no previous warning or strikes, several accounts like raymo_G (80.3K followers), classicsgroyp (68K), Kaizerrev (21.2K), and more were deleted with the snap of Musk’s fingers.

This “battle” between Fuentes and Musk over H-1Bs is simply a symptom of a larger problem: the MAGA movement was hijacked by Silicon Valley and their policy goals are different, if not directly contradictory, to the grassroots base’s.

Unfortunately, this means the right wing will most likely split into two camps over the next four years.

Using the H-1B example, MAGA 2.0, like Vivek and Elon were doing a few weeks ago, will do their best to articulate that if America wants to “win” (whatever that means), then we have no other option than to import large amounts of “highly skilled” immigrants to fill tech jobs.

2.0 will undeniably have a decent sized portion of the right wing that will agree with them, with some genuinely agreeing and others simply nodding their heads to whatever their “savior” Elon tells them.

1.0, on the other hand will ask one simple question: “how is importing a bunch of Indians and Pakistanis to fill jobs Americans could easily work at America first?”

What it comes down to, like previously mentioned, is that outsourcing the talent pool overseas is cheaper than hiring Americans and leads to improved bottom lines.

The cheap, foreign labor phenomenon has had a larger role to play in the stagnation of middle class wages than the Reagan trickle-down economics policies that liberals love blaming for all of the world’s problems.

The fact is that America is not some sort of economic zone that just anyone can come to or some abstract group of ideas but rather the conglomeration of the Americans that inhabit it.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for a moratorium on immigration or anything similar to that. It has undeniably been a net positive for the country and its history.

However, immigration is all about the context that precedes it. It is a tool that should be used to advance the interests of the country as a whole, not a handful of tech titans.

I hate to tell anyone who is putting 100% faith in guys like Vivek, Elon, Thiel, Sacks, or the rest of these guys because, simply put, as hard as they will try to convince you, they do not have the same goals, intentions, or interests as you.

As a result, the policies they advocate for, with the exception of a few crumbs thrown your way, probably won’t benefit you; in fact, they might be to your detriment.

But hey, I may be wrong.

But I doubt it.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

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