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Latest revision as of 06:51, 22 November 2025

Photograph from the secret NSF study that led to the H-1B.

Eric Weinstein consistently discusses the H-1B visa program as the product of a deliberate "labor tampering conspiracy" orchestrated in the mid-1980s by key U.S. institutions, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) within the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He traces its roots to a secret 1986 NSF economic study conducted under NSF Director Erich Bloch, with involvement from Peter House (head of NSF's Policy Research and Analysis Division) and economist Myles Boylan. This study, titled "The Pipeline For Scientific and Technical Personnel: Past Lessons Applied to Future Changes of Interest to Policy-Makers and Human Resource Specialists," projected that new U.S. PhDs in science and engineering (S&E) fields would command salaries exceeding $100,000 (in 1986 dollars) due to market dynamics, which the study labeled a "pessimistic scenario" because it would require employers to pay competitive wages. To avert this, the NSF allegedly suppressed the economic model's demand-side projections and instead produced a flawed, supply-only demographic study predicting a massive "shortfall" of 675,000 S&E bachelor's degrees between 1986 and 2011, based solely on declining numbers of 22-year-olds without considering wage adjustments or market equilibrium.

@EricRWeinstein

I highly recommend learning about the history of where H-1B came from before getting emotionally invested in it.

It was born as a labor tampering conspiracy against American scientists headquartered at the @theNASEM (GUIRR) & @nsf (PRA) under Erich Bloch.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/how-why-government-universities-industry-create-domestic-labor-shortages-of-scientists-high-tech-workers

6:52 AM · Dec 29, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

Posted this later, as an example:

8:55 AM · Dec 29, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

"A growing influx of foreign PhD's into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries to the extent that foreign students are attracted to U.S. doctoral programs as a way of immigrating to the U.S."

-Photograph from the secret @NSF study that led to the H-1B.

8:24 AM · Dec 29, 2024

This manipulated shortfall narrative, Weinstein argues, directly influenced the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT90), which tripled permanent skilled worker visas to approximately 27,000 per year, introduced the H-1B temporary visa category for specialty occupations, and created the "Einstein Exemption" waiving labor certification requirements for certain "priority workers." He describes this as an "out and out conspiracy" headquartered at NSF (via its Policy Research and Analysis division) and NAS (via GUIRR), designed to interfere with free labor markets on behalf of employers, universities, and industry, rather than scientists or national interests. Weinstein emphasizes that this was not incompetence but intentional: the NSF hid the competent economic study (a "smoking gun") and faked an incompetent one to justify flooding the market, as he deduced from first principles using a concept he calls "failure to close" in systems analysis. He presented this evidence multiple times at NAS events in 2003, noting the lack of public records of these presentations as further proof of suppression.

Weinstein repeatedly urges people to learn this history before engaging emotionally, warning that H-1B is a "political football" designed to divide good people. He points to the absence of mainstream media coverage over 25+ years as evidence of a broader "Distributed Idea Suppression Complex" (DISC), "Gated Institutional Narrative" (GIN) and Managed Reality TM, where inconvenient truths are silenced.

Economic Mechanisms and Theoretical Foundations[edit]

From an economic perspective, Weinstein argues that long-term labor shortages cannot exist in large market economies with functioning wage mechanisms, as rising demand would naturally increase salaries to attract supply, clearing the market. He likens claimed STEM shortages to mythical "jackalopes"—fictitious constructs used by employers and institutions to justify interventions. The H-1B program, in his view, tampers with this mechanism by importing foreign PhDs as a "lure" for immigration, holding down U.S. PhD salaries. A key quote from the secret NSF study he cites: "A growing influx of foreign PhD's into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries to the extent that foreign students are attracted to U.S. doctoral programs as a way of immigrating to the U.S."

Technically, this creates a "perverse effect" where provisions to "rectify" shortages ensure their continuation by preventing wage signals from functioning. H-1B visas tether workers to sponsoring employers, introducing elements of "servitude" that distort wage negotiations and render the workforce more "docile and pliable." Weinstein contrasts this with Ronald Coase's theorem on property rights, suggesting labor access rights should be securitized and traded (e.g., as shares in compensation packages) rather than confiscated as "seigniorage" for employers.

Weinstein highlights how the system treats STEM workers as non-unionizable "graduate students" or "trainees" (e.g., postdocs), paid partly with immigration lures, which suppresses overall compensation and ignores externalities like displacement of niche businesses that natives might found. Data he cites includes foreign students accounting for nearly all PhD growth since the mid-1980s, with over 50% of engineering PhDs going to foreigners by 1990, and postdoc numbers tripling for internationals while stagnating for domestics. This leads to pay compression, rising unemployment (e.g., math PhDs from 2% to 11% by 1995), and negative opportunity costs for U.S. students, who forgo wages during 10+ years of training for modest premiums.

Impacts on Workers and Society[edit]

Weinstein describes H-1B as an "evil system" that brings great people to displace other great people, weakening American workers' bargaining positions and forcing them to "mitigate their wage demands." He emphasizes that the problem is not immigrants themselves but the visas and abusive labor market practices by Americans. The U.S. STEM labor market has been "totally & deliberately rigged" since 1986 in favor of employers, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and Boomers, against scientists, science, and the nation. This betrays U.S. STEM professionals, treating them as "STEM serfs" or inducing the complex to "murder careers of our own people." Senior scientists and employers, via NSF/NAS, destroyed career paths for younger colleagues.

@EricRWeinstein

Those debating H-1B and skilled immigration should talk to its intellectual father. A quiet man of which you likely have never heard.

There is one hell of a conspiracy story to tell around where this came from. Would consider doing a podcast to stop my friends from fighting.

3:25 PM · Dec 26, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

This is one of the most important people in modern US history. @myles_boylan, you are all but unknown, but it would be an honor to have you as my guest on The Portal.

It is time.

3:23 AM · Jan 3, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Spoiler Alert: Skilled Immigration is a political football.

It is an evil system designed by a conspiracy from our science complex that brings us great people to displace our own great people, which is supported by great people and fought by great people.

All the major voices I see on this so far are in some super-position of 'Wrong' and 'Not Wrong'.

Note to my friends with the incoming administration: It will tear you apart if you don't know where it came from and what it is designed to do.

3:34 PM · Dec 26, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

Word to the wise: It is designed to tear good people apart.

Don't fall for it:

https://users.nber.org/~sewp/references/archive/weinsteinhowandwhygovernment.pdf

3:34 PM · Dec 26, 2024

Broader societal harms include eroding U.S. advantages in "freedom & irreverence based education," reliance on foreign talent trained in obedience (e.g., from Asia), and national security risks from outsourcing innovation. Weinstein notes short-term damage from cancelling H-1B but argues it's overdue, as the program itself is the "fraud" and "abuse."

Proposed Reforms and Broader Perspective[edit]

Eric advocates for "tight labor markets" without "wage relief," where true shortages raise wages to benefit society, and suggests printing shares instead of visas to align incentives. Overall reform should fit U.S. needs, focusing on efficiency and rights rather than employer biases.

In broader context, Weinstein sees H-1B as part of systemic issues like Embedded Growth Obligations (requiring perpetual growth) and wealth transfers from labor to capital, akin to NAFTA or Boskin Commission adjustments to CPI. He practices "responsible conspiracy theorizing," backing claims with evidence like the hidden study, and avoiding filling in knowledge gaps prematurely with wild speculation.

On X[edit]

2016[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

Hey @michiokaku, Just saw your position on H1B.

I believe you're wrong at a spectacular level. Care to dance?

ERW

12:00 AM · Sep 6, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

1/ The invisible world is first detected in the visible world's failure to close. [For @naval @johndurant @pmarca et al. A tweet storm try.]

3:23 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

2/ In physics we have conservation laws. We found the light/invisible neutrino because decay in heavy/visible particles violated these rules

3:27 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

3/ Likewise in biology we proved the germ thy of pathogens vs theories like spontaneous generation/miasma by visible effects at macro scale.

3:31 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

4/ I used 'failure to close' to deduce from 1st principles that the NSF must have done a secret study in '85-6 on how to *lower* sci. wages.

3:35 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

5/ This was b/c the incompetent 'shortfall studies' that got NSF in trouble would have lead to different visa laws than those that passed.

3:40 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

6/ I was shocked when a highly competent "smoking gun" study hidden in '86 showed up exactly where my thy predicted: https://t.co/VZvmupRFon

3:44 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

7/ This is the secret history of H1-B. The @NSF secretly studied how to interfere w/ US labor market 2 avoid paying scientists market wages.

3:47 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

8/ Rules:
I) Look for a macro system failing to close.
II) *Don't* posit a detailed explanation.
III) Posit a 'neutrino' place holder & dig.

3:55 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

9/ HW: A) Why don't top OEMs sell laptops w/ lens covers, mic kill switches & hardwired video LEDs offering security to gain mkt advantage?

4:01 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

10/ How do you get 9 figures of wealth doing charity work & public speaking without selling, inventing, founding or investing brilliantly?

4:03 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

11/ C) Why were Bernie's massive rallies often not covered @ NYT & why did a positive Bernie article go neg after massive linking from web?

4:08 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

12/ D) Why do laboratory bred mice used for drug testing have extra long telomeres (allowing radical tissue repair) compared to wild type?

4:10 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

13/ I could go on. I don't know which are nefarious. I'm a different kind of conspiracy guy. I *don't* have answers but know where I'd dig.

4:14 AM · Sep 21, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

14/14. Thank you for your time. Feel free 2 attack. But remember, I've been here before just as w @NSF...before digging up their smoking gun

4:18 AM · Sep 21, 2016

2017[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

Dr. Kaku never got back to me on his unapologetic love of H1-B.

Pity. But we are all busy people so no hard feelings.

Blog post to follow.

4:01 PM · Mar 29, 2017

@EricRWeinstein

Hey @michiokaku, Just saw your position on H1B.

I believe you're wrong at a spectacular level. Care to dance?

ERW

12:00 AM · Sep 6, 2016

@EricRWeinstein

My @INETeconomics blog post: What's H1-B designed to do?

US immigration isn't broken. The problem is it's 'fixed':

https://ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/how-why-government-universities-industry-create-domestic-labor-shortages-of-scientists-high-tech-workers

5:57 PM · Mar 29, 2017

2018[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

You know why we developed the H-1B visa Marc? It was to weaken American workers’ bargaining positions so much that they would be *forced* to mitigate their wage demands at your bargaining table. It’s a wage tampering program.

You might find this helpful: https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/Weinstein-GUI_NSF_SG_Complete_INET.pdf

2:41 PM · Dec 5, 2018

I strongly support HR392 eliminating the per country visa cap. This bill must happen. The high skill visa provision has overwhelming bi-partisan support because this is good for our economy. We need to grow our workers to grow our economy.

9:45 PM · Dec 4, 2018

To be fair, what @Benioff is supporting (HR392) is unrelated to H1B program or any changes to it. #HR392 ensures that no country gets preferential treatment while issuing green cards.

2:47 AM · Dec 5, 2018

@EricRWeinstein

And to be technical, my point isn’t really specific to h1b as it really refers to IMMACT90 and technical labor.

3:00 PM · Dec 5, 2018

2019[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

Let me remind you what the National Science Foundation / National Academy were really up to w/ high skilled immigration. But let’s do it in their own words from their own secret study which they hid from the public. It was about tampering w/ free markets to hobble US scientists.

4:48 AM · Jan 25, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

No mainstream outlet has properly covered this story in 25 years. Every big paper has asked about it. Yet every story is always spiked by an editor. It just sits there in full view of the entire press core.

It is what proved to me that there is no actual newspaper in America.

4:48 AM · Jan 25, 2019

So you’re saying that the NSF actually WANTED to hobble US scientists? Aren’t they, um, a part of that community? I’m open to learning...but off the cuff, this seems right wing anti immigrant stuff. Or self serving at the least.Granting I don’t know as much as you. Help me get it

6:41 AM · Jan 25, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

It’s one hell of a rabbit hole. Yes, senior scientists and employers destroyed the career path for their younger colleagues. That was the shocker. It was the NSF/NAS.

7:18 AM · Jan 25, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

@StevenWallman @eiaine That’s what birthed H1B.

5:07 AM · Jan 25, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

It would appear I missed an important memo from our friends at Google. They are going to start algorithmically burying content that doesn’t violate their terms of service.

YouTube & Google constitute much of our market place of ideas. Is that a Free Market? An Open Market?

3:33 PM · Feb 10, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/01/continuing-our-work-to-improve.html?m=1

3:33 PM · Feb 10, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

“We’ll continue ... this year, including taking a closer look at how we can reduce the spread of content that comes close to—but doesn’t quite cross the line of—violating our Community Guidelines. To that end, we’ll begin reducing recommendations of borderline content...” -Google

3:33 PM · Feb 10, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Okay @Google & @YouTube. We have elections coming up in 2020. Can you be HYPER-specific about what you mean by “doesn’t quite cross the line” as a decision boundary?? Can you describe this classifier in DETAIL given your relationship to civil society & democracy? We have all day.

3:33 PM · Feb 10, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Who/what is Borderline content? Is that Falt Earthers & @benshapiro? What of people who think Lee Harvey Oswald might not have acted alone? Is that @JamesADamore or people who want to take anti-trust action against @Google? What about those who oppose H1bs you use as tampering?

3:42 PM · Feb 10, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Except that our institutional mainstream is *pure* fringe:

FreeTrade w/o Kaldor Hicks Transfers
“Great Moderation”
Student Loans w/o Bankruptcy
Employer Tethering of H1B
Invasion of Iraq for WMD
Multimillionaire ex-Civil Servants
Black Incarceration
Etc.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/paypal-ceo-grapples-with-fringe-groups-11551016800

9:46 PM · Feb 24, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

When we ban people from spreading conspiracy theories we can no longer discuss conspiracies.

In 2017, I spread a conspiracy story.

Q: Should I be deplatformed for alleging that the US has a proven ability to destroy lawful US citizens by planting fake news in mainstream media?

7:08 AM · May 3, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Think about this: the US has had a proven history of conspiring repeatedly against its own citizens and destroying lives. Our check against that tyranny is FREE SPEECH/PRESS including the freedom to discuss & test wild hypotheses that begin as...wait for it...conspiracy theories.

7:08 AM · May 3, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Right now, EVERY major platform (@Google, @Apple, @facebook & @Twitter) both spreads and profits from hate, violence, misinformation and offensive speech. I will defend them in the same terms I defend all those they deplatformed pretending that they have a zero tolerance policy.

7:08 AM · May 3, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Furthermore I will again spread my own researched conspiracy theory: the H-1b & the Immigration Act of 1990 were created from a conspiracy inside the @theNASciences & @nsf complex to target and betray our own STEM professionals on behalf of STEM employers: https://ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/Weinstein-GUI_NSF_SG_Complete_INET.pdf

7:08 AM · May 3, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

Ending conspiracy theories means ending investigative journalism: no My Lai. It means banning Howard Zinn. Not discussing the McCollum memo. Not talking about the Dulles brothers / Kermit Roosevelt. Forgetting the untreated syphilis victims of Tuskegee.

Me to FB: Drop dead. /End

7:08 AM · May 3, 2019

@EricRWeinstein

P.S. In honor of FB's zero tolerance, I joined a pro-violence hate group on FaceBook. It has an ideology of supporting violence by Kurdish Women against ISIS, its hated target. Come join me and dare FaceBook to shut us down. We are called "Kurdish Freedom Fighters Against ISIS"

7:17 AM · May 3, 2019

2020[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

We need an emergency talk about this media war on @AndrewYang & @TulsiGabbard that was waged on @RonPaul, @BernieSanders & others before.

This is what I call the “Vampire Effect”; institutions will not reflect certain people just as vampires supposedly don’t reflect in a mirror.

8:33 PM · Jan 7, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

This isn’t cute as #YangMediaBlackout. This isn’t hidden any more. This is a boast by our media. Their point to all of us is: “Fuck you and your illusions”. And We aren’t calling it what it is: a declaration of war by our own media and parties against our own democratic process.

8:33 PM · Jan 7, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Forget the Russians tampering in US democracy. That’s amateur hour. The Russians aren’t bragging like this. @MSNBC has been asking: “So tough guys, whatcha gonna do about the fact that we just keep knocking your milkshake into your date’s lap?”

8:33 PM · Jan 7, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I’ve experience it every time I bring up the secret NSF study that lead to the H1B visa. There is an absolute black out. But because I have the study, media can’t say it doesn’t exist. So they just refuse to reflect it. Same w/ other such issues. There’s just *no* MSM reflection.

8:33 PM · Jan 7, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

We need to just be done with this open coup against meaningful elections. This is “Magicians choice” ... which is no choice at all. To hell with our news magicians. We need to make their credibility a financial issue. Open to suggestions.

Take a look:

https://vocal.media/theSwamp/a-visual-history-of-the-yang-media-blackout

8:33 PM · Jan 7, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

A correct initial point. Wrong (business school friendly type) frame.

Given not Zero sum: do you think more or less innovation would happen if labor access rights were securitized & traded as in Coasian theory or if they were confiscated and used as seigniorage as they are now?

7:16 PM · Jan 11, 2020

Erik Brynjolfsson

It’s not zero sum.

Do you think wages (and innovation and profits) would be higher or lower if fewer of the very smartest people came to Silicon Valley from the rest of the world? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-ring_theory_of_economic_development

6:54 PM · Jan 11, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Next point: do you think that it is more or less efficient to pretend STEM workers are ‘graduate students’ being paid with immigration lures and not allowed to unionize or is it better to use markets?

7:16 PM · Jan 11, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Additionally, how many of the H1Bs are tethered to “sponsoring employers” or masters? What happens when wage signals are distorted by servitude? How many niche businesses founded by immigrants would have been founded by natives? Why is this often not estimated or set to zero??

7:16 PM · Jan 11, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Overarching point: our entire immigration discussion is framed & structured to come to conclusions favored by employers. It excludes rights issues, efficiency issues, tampering, dilution, externalities. You are interpreting my frame rejection as my not having thought about this.

7:20 PM · Jan 11, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Well, I’ve thought about this. Even published.

7:20 PM · Jan 11, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I got tired of MSNBC suppressing @AndrewYang. The @DNC suppressing @TulsiGabbard. @HillaryClinton suppressing @bernie. @ABC editors suppressing reporting on Epstein. @nytimes not covering @EvergreenStCol in real time. @Harvard burying my wife’s & my work: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/18-slipping-the-disc-state-of-the-portal-chapter-2020/id1469999563?i=1000462651162

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I got tired of @RonPaul being suppressed by @GOP. The @UMich wasting years of my brother’s life and peer review suppressing his discovery. The Boskin commission suppressing truth about inflation. How the @nsf and @theNASEM suppressed the reason for H1-B. We must name the enemy:

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

The enemy is the DISC. Its the complex of structures that resulted in fantastic income inequality & unrest breaking out all over the 🌎. It is what keeps Jamie Dimon safe from Len Bole. David Baltimore from Margot O’Toole. Biden safe from Yang. Institutions safe from Individuals.

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

The first goal of The Portal is to install a Portal allowing young researchers in our STEM departments and Research Universities to avoid being subjected to submission to these instutions. No loyalty oaths. No signing over your intellectual property. No theft of your retirement.

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I don’t want you having to submit your work to an anonymous referee if you don’t trust that process. What if it is an unethical competitor? What if your advisor is jealous of you or has come to dislike you? You and your work need adult options. You are a scientist not an infant.

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

You have a right to unionize. You have a right to know if your department can’t place its graduates into professorships and is blaming you for its failures. You have a right not to be subjected to the intellectual “Droit du seigneur” that has come over “graduate training”.

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

And what do I want in exchange for trying this? Selfishly, I am about to take on a fair amount of negativity and risk so I would be honored to be mentioned in your thesis acknowledgements if I can help get you a real income and the rights to your own work. But I want more.

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

What I most want is that you have the courage I lacked. I couldn’t imagine standing up to Harvard.

I want you to swing for the fucking fences w/ your research. I want you to remember that we need you to get out of our stagnation. I want you to believe pathologically in yourself.

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

So let’s go after the exhaust vent in the DISC. Let’s get you a future. Jobs in the same city as the one you love. Careers while you‘re young. Let’s get you savings for retirement & help raising your kids.

But to make this work: stop fetishizing “identity” & build our future.🙏

7:09 PM · Jan 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Five days ago I released a podcast. It has been listened to by over 100,000 people. If you search twitter you will see that it generates an enormous amount of interest except from two groups: the news & professors. They are not disinterested, but anti-interested. Except for Greg.

if you haven't listened to this then you're in for a crazy, unhinged but brilliant ride.

1:20 AM · Jan 22, 2020

3:01 AM · Jan 23, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

What is anti-interesting? Well Jeffery Epstein’s wealth source is anti-interesting to media. Bernie in 2016 was anti-interesting to @nytimes. Income inequality was anti-interesting to economists until very recently. The Las Vegas shooter was anti-interesting. Building Seven too.

3:01 AM · Jan 23, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

To @MSNBC, @AndrewYang is pathologically anti-interesting. Flight 800 is pretty anti-interesting as was the Boskin Commission’s attempt to transfer 1 Trillion Dollars by hacking the CPI. The H1-B visa history is anti-interesting. As are broken laboratory mice with long telomeres.

3:01 AM · Jan 23, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Anti-interesting, adj. 1) A subject is said to be anti-interesting if it is absolutely fascinating to the point where there is a strong market for it’s investigation but it threatens an institution capable of stifling discussion inside the Gated Institutional Narrative (GIN).

3:01 AM · Jan 23, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

But I find these things fascinating. As do we all. Do stay tuned to The Portal.

More to come. Thanks @greggutfeld!

https://sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72103/s72103-9.pdf

3:01 AM · Jan 23, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

If you want to see this theory of Idea Suppression in action, retweet the first tweet in the thread with hashtag #SlipTheDISC. Hey, who knows...We might be able to change the game.

3:06 AM · Jan 23, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Now would be an excellent time to ask how safe it is to underpay top scientists & engineers relative to say Investment Bankers, VCs or mgmt consultants.

Because you‘ve been habituated to bargain basement pricing for skills valued by our military rivals.

Close eyes. Open wallet.

11:39 PM · Jan 28, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Also, all your dumb US kids you were told couldn’t do STEM? That was a lie.

And those terrible Thiel fellowships paying kids to drop out? That was partially about saving folks from student debt that couldn’t be discharged in bankruptcy. I know. You were told it was evil. 🤷‍♀️

11:39 PM · Jan 28, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Also H1-b for the “Best and Brightest”...um...this is so awkward...those visas tethered foreign workers to employer-sponsors so they couldn’t respond to wage signals. Yep. But we called bosses “Technologists” to confuse folks. Beastly but clever, right? Object? You’re xenophobic!

11:39 PM · Jan 28, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

It’s going to take a while to wake up to what the STEM workforce & US research university network mutated into being. Think of how you used to see Bear Stearns or AIG, but before 2007. That’s where we are now.

Nothing is how it appears. Let’s let events unfold a bit more though.

11:39 PM · Jan 28, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

People ask why I’m on about masks. I’m not focused on them. I’ve been trying to tell you about my theory of Embedded Growth Obligations and how our *entire* civilian lead leadership has become deranged by them.

Masks just show us they‘re willing to kill, and without blinking.

4:26 PM · Mar 31, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

2008 was about the theory of E.G.O.s. And it looked like this. Sooner or later we‘ll get to serious armed conflict w/ developed nations if we want to sit & wait for that.

I guess I have a vague hope that we will wake up earlier when we see Doctors & Nurses in Queens put at risk.

4:26 PM · Mar 31, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

But maybe this is getting boring. I mean, it’s just our governmental & world organization leaders pushing us in front of a train to cover for their failures so that their careers aren’t interrupted with so much as a hiccup. So same old, same old.

Frankly, I want off the Titanic.

4:26 PM · Mar 31, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

There is some rule that leaders never pay w/ their careers or their freedom. That didn’t use to be true. We used to jail people, clawback their gains, and promote based on vigor/ability. And we will again. We just have to flush two generations of leaders that changed our rules.

4:26 PM · Mar 31, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

So no, it’s not about masks. It’s not about forest fire management. It’s not about central bank tampering. It’s not about campaign finance. It’s not about H1B. It’s not about String Theory or a reproducibility crisis.

It’s about their parent theory: Embedded-Growth-Obligations.

4:26 PM · Mar 31, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

The simple through line is this: your leadership was selected for based on an ability not to upset their own and other institutions while those institutions had to lie about their success & inability to grow.

This leadership cohort is generation ponzi. That’s their superpower.🙏

4:26 PM · Mar 31, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Cancelling the evil H1-B program would/will cause a tremendous amount of short term damage to the US and will be painful for many wonderful highly skilled workers and is also long overdue.

That thought is too complicated however. So let’s have a silly visa conversation instead.

9:35 PM · Jun 22, 2020

miranda brafford

@mirrandalynn96

@EricRWeinstein I would love to hear your opinion on the cancelling of H-1B from President Trump... this seems like a pendulum is going to swing way to far past where we need to address the issues of low paying institutions.

9:25 PM · Jun 22, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I see. Not impressed with reinstating Church/Pike to investigate intelligence, shutting down h1b, separating scientific research from radicalized teaching departments, bipartisan walking back of the Supreme Court nomination interference to the Warren court, etc.?

My apologies.

3:05 PM · Jul 24, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I’m sorry, but there is something about accounts claiming that what just happened, never ever happened that makes me feel dumber and dumber everytime I log on.

I hope to got this is from a bot farm. GPT-3 is better than this take fresh out of the box.

3:05 PM · Jul 24, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

H1-b visas come out of a secret 1986 economics study by the Policy, Reaearch & Analysis division of @NSF through the GUIRR division of @theNASciences in a scheme to tamper with the wage mechanism so that scientists would slave for a market in which they wouldn’t participate. 🙏

4:28 PM · Oct 6, 2020

Listen to the scientists.

12:24 AM · Oct 6, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

-Eric Weinstein, PhD (Math)

4:31 PM · Oct 6, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

You cannot board the Trump Train. No matter how many times he sticks it to your tormentors. I know it’s tempting when you can’t stand the DNC.

He remains an existential risk to America and its values. We are very particular about how we take out the trash: this is anti-American.

12:48 AM · Oct 16, 2020

Trump: We sent in the US Marshals, took 15 minutes and it was over... They knew who he was, they didn’t want to arrest him and 15 minutes that ended

6:01 PM · Oct 15, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I don’t mean I can’t understand voting for him. I could also make an argument for voting either way.

I mean you can’t tell me that we just don’t get him. We get him. It’s not “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to see this as anti-American BS, and we need to get back to due process.

12:48 AM · Oct 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I approve of taking action against CRT. Against H1b. Of moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Of making peace in the Middle East. Of no new wars. Of sticking it to the WOKE bigots on their rampage through our institutions. Etc.

But no. There are lines. This is way over one such line.

12:48 AM · Oct 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Extra-judicial killings are beyond the pale. Obama joked about them with drones. After his killing Anwar al-Awlaki, I spoke against Obama’s horrid attitude. Well, I condemn this Trump talk inducing law officers toward extrajudicial killing. WTF?

God damn. What is wrong with us?

12:48 AM · Oct 16, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I respect Dave’s decision. Part of being an American is loving people you disagree with and NOT trying to shame or control them. Also allowing that they change their minds, evolve & may see more/less clearly than we can.

Don’t lose your mind, family & friends over an election.🙏

1:13 AM · Oct 30, 2020

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Thank you to Dave Rubin, author of “Don’t Burn This Book”, just announced on @foxandfriends that he is voting for your favorite President, me. “I think Donald Trump has done a lot of good. When I see an American flag, I see Trump support.”

1:35 PM · Oct 29, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I also think a lot of people are going to vote for @realDonaldTrump over:

A) Portland & @tedwheeler
B) Critical Race Theory
C) H1B
D) CCP & geopolitics
E) Activist Press
F) Activist Tech
G) MSM/DNC treatment of @TulsiGabbard / @AndrewYang
H) Jerusalem Embassy Move

Continuing..

1:39 AM · Oct 30, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Continued.

I) Peace: Sudan & Israel
J) Naming China & WHO in Covid
K) Peace: Israel & Bahrain
L) No new US wars
M) Seattle CHAZ & @MayorJenny
N) Peace: U.A.E. & Israel
O) Denial of soon to be 78 year old Biden’s cognitive issues
P) Hunter Biden Story
Q) “Defund the Police”
Etc.

1:39 AM · Oct 30, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

In short, the Left used the last 4yrs to shoot itself in the foot. I couldn’t vote DJT because of the daily negative effect he has on our national culture. But, unlike 4 years ago, it’s no mystery why folks switch to him.

It’s not all ProTrump: They‘re voting to repudiate “us”.

1:39 AM · Oct 30, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I will be very surprised if there isn’t a *much* stronger than expected surge for Trump. The Left and Right have both jumped the shark in my opinion. So please don’t tell me what anyone has to do with his or her vote. We all watched this “election” happen & failed to prevent it.

1:39 AM · Oct 30, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Michael, I respectfully disagree. We could add those who voted for the PATRIOT act, worked for censorious tech platforms, closed their eyes to H1B worker replacement, supported the “WMD” Iraq war, etc.

I did none of those things, but I’ve done plenty of things I’d take back.

https://x.com/mbsimon/status/1324845072697987075

11:57 PM · Nov 6, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Look, the most important thing is we either have a country or we don’t. I’m not going to lie: I didn’t like this presidency, but I believe we the Democrats, and not the republicans, elected him. We are also the bad guys for telling everyone to fall in line...or watch their step.

11:57 PM · Nov 6, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

Join me in not blacklisting anyone who didn’t break our laws and offering the same respect I demand they show us when I do their conservative shows.

They fear us & our wide eyed Utopianism more than they hate us. They fear the left is just crazy enough to lead us into violence.

11:57 PM · Nov 6, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

I want to signal the opposite: “We the Left had blacklists inflicted on us. We came back w ‘The Free Speech Movement’. We will not hunt or intimidate those who have historically used illiberal tools against us.”

Two Words: Join me.

My Heart’s open: We don’t blacklist Americans.

11:57 PM · Nov 6, 2020

@EricRWeinstein

[p.s. thanks for engaging. Civility takes courage at the moment. Respect, brother.]

12:05 AM · Nov 7, 2020

2021[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

Honest question: who are the *deep* critics of our establishment and institutions that the establishment and institutions *are* taking seriously?

Let’s assume I’m worried about Davos. Or media refusal to ask obvious questions about Epstein. Who are you listening to on that?

3:50 PM · Feb 11, 2021

Kennedy Jr is a menace.

10:10 PM · Feb 6, 2021

“[Fauci] is a very sinister guy who has turned this country over to Big Pharma.” -- @RobertKennedyJr on The Laura Ingraham Show. Listen to my full interview with Robert by subscribing to @QuakeMedia today: http://quakemedia.com/laura

IngrahamAngle-X-post-1358173626940362752-EtgwVkOXAAIRpZ4.jpg

10:00 PM · Feb 6, 2021

The issue with Kennedy Jr isn’t his criticism of Big Pharma or leaders of the medical community. Skepticism is often good. The issue is his years of shoddy and mendacious “scholarship” that has impacted lives negatively.

4:47 PM · Feb 11, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Ok. Take that as you state it.

Many of us are worried about the Great Reset & Davos. Or why the press won’t ask questions about accelerated natural selection in the Wuhan Lab. Or about Epstein & intelligence or where his hedge fund records are. Who are you listening to on those?

4:47 PM · Feb 11, 2021

Are you asking me or your followers? Either way, to whom do you recommend we listen? I agree all of those topics are worthy of further coverage and scrutiny.

5:23 PM · Feb 11, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

I’m, somewhat unfairly, asking you. I’d be happy to ask privately. My DMs are open.

I’m concerned that JE was never a hedge fund manager and that no one in traditional media is trying to find his hedge fund trading records/filings or asking about ties to intelligence community.

5:40 PM · Feb 11, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

I’d recommend listening to @BretWeinstein on accelerated natural selection of the virus but to talk to virologists about the difference between an engineered synthetic virus & merely directing selection inside a lab. Media deals with the former only to discredit lab leak theory.

5:47 PM · Feb 11, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

On the secret immigration act of 1990 & H-1B history, I can give you the backstory. But Michael Teitelbaum and Prof. Norman Matloff would be excellent sources once you know the reason the NSF flooded our markets leading to staffing our STEM research labs with Chinese nationals.

5:50 PM · Feb 11, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

I truly appreciate @jaketapper for engaging me on Twitter. I have suggested we switch to DMs. He has engaged. The conversation is now private at my request and not his.

Thank you Jake. I admire this and it is all too rare. There is no gotcha.

End.

6:01 PM · Feb 11, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Thanks for the invitation. I can try to explain my concern.

There really *is* a problem w MAGA, Trump, Qanon & conspiracy theories running rampant. And it will result in death & destruction if it spins out of control.

However it is being fueled by those who claim to fight it.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

Hi @EricRWeinstein. Can you please explain to the public why you would be preemptive like this in a way that seems to contradict your value system? 🙏

12:42 AM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

The entire war over fact checking is a war of 2 low resolution teams.

One team wants absolute freedom to spread wild eyed theories that just about everything is a psyop or a false flag.

The other team wants to impose institutional consensus reality on everyone via media & tech.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Unfortunately, I can’t live under either. So each of the warring parties thinks I’m against them & for the other team. In their mentalities if you aren’t on their simplistic team you are, de facto, working for the other side. There’s no basic concept of *responsible* heterodoxy.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

No the Freemasons do not run everything on behalf of pedophile reptilians who faked Sandy Hook with crisis actors.

Yes there are/were conspiracies behind Epstein, H1B, @MSNBC, PPE, climate science, the “Great Moderation”, Great Reset...everywhere institutions want a “consensus”.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Having spent a good portion of my 20s at Harvard, I know *exactly* how this game works. Our betters sit down and try to figure out how to control others behind closed doors. They see themselves as the intrinsically enlightened people who need to do the thinking for all of us.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

When they wanted to cut our Social Security payments & raise our taxes they opted to try to change the CPI rather than pass legislation. When they wanted to pay less for scientists they knew to keep *silent* about NSF Labor Shortage claims even though such shortages don’t exist.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

These are the folks who tell you “masks don’t work” rather than “save masks for doctors as we forgot to restock them and moved all manufacturing to China like morons”. They will then spin on a dime to tell you “Only bad dumb people don’t wear masks”. This is the worst of Harvard.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

So I don’t want Alex Jones and Qanon nor do I want @TwitterSafety, @msnbc and @Harvard. I see them as very different forms of the same thing: people who want to take away our ability to see clearly.

And, I assure you, @Harvard tries to paint anyone it can’t control as dangerous.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

So, my belief is that anyone who rejects/questions Davos, Consensus Reality, Institutional Narrative, Public Health Campaigns, High Immigration, Peer Review, Primary Election Coverage, Trust & Safety...will be treated as Alex Jones sooner or Later.

This is Managed Reality ™.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

I cannot live in Managed Reality ™ because I think it defeats the purpose of being a human being. It negates being an American. It abdicates responsibility for our children.

I have defeated Harvard about half the times we have fought. How? Because they just aren’t that good.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Managed Reality ™ has a weak spot. It’s not run by our A-team anymore. Fauci isn’t Francis Crick. Biden isn’t Elon. Janet Yellen isn’t Satoshi.

In general, the A-Team is going independent because tech/media/Ed are enforcing way too much conformity through personal destruction.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

So why am I worried?

Well, I’ve been trying to save the institutions. It’s probably doomed, but almost no one is trying to do what I do: rescue the institutions from their death spiral by reinserting their critics in positions of prominence (eg Chomsky at MIT).

Hence my fear.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

If I were a tech guy I’d retreat into wealth. If I were a professor I’d shut up and collect my salary with job security. If I was a politician or journalist I’d follow the other sheep.

But I’m a science guy, an American and a dad. And I want my kids to have a particular future.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Thanks.

3:50 PM · Feb 12, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Love this from a brother here on H1b visa. I have spoken out against the H1b visa as an abomination and for restrictionism. But it’s never against the immigrants. They *should* pursue the best life possible. And if they become citizens, we welcome them fully. Thanks Maharana!

3:31 PM · Mar 29, 2021

@ranapratap1540

Happy Holi to you Eric. Thank you for mentioning the song. The lyrics are from the song in legendary hindi movie Sholay! Also I am on H1b and I like your ideas about reforming H1b to fit need of USA. Please keep up good work!

2:26 PM · Mar 29, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

The visas & our fellow Americans abusing the labor market are the problem. Not the immigrants. And immigrants are often first to understand this. So odd how big STEM hides behind fake merit and xenophilia while the restrictionists fight their exploitation of American openness.

3:31 PM · Mar 29, 2021

2022[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

For the nth time:

The US Scientific Labor Market has been totally & deliberately rigged from 1986 on. As in completely ‘fixed’.

For whom? Employers/PRC/Boomers.

By whom? @theNASciences, GUIRR, AAU and @nsf.

Against whom: Scientists. Science. The US.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/us/ucla-adjunct-professor-salary.html

4:49 PM · Apr 6, 2022

@EricRWeinstein

What will happen next? You’ll read this story. You’ll scratch your head “Needs PhD for 0 compensation??”

Then a few days later you will read another story about how the US is falling behind in STEM and the workplace of tomorrow needs H-1B visas & technical skills.

In a picture:

4:49 PM · Apr 6, 2022

2024[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

Those debating H-1B and skilled immigration should talk to its intellectual father. A quiet man of which you likely have never heard.

There is one hell of a conspiracy story to tell around where this came from. Would consider doing a podcast to stop my friends from fighting.

3:25 PM · Dec 26, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

This is one of the most important people in modern US history. @myles_boylan, you are all but unknown, but it would be an honor to have you as my guest on The Portal.

It is time.

3:23 AM · Jan 3, 2021

@EricRWeinstein

Spoiler Alert: Skilled Immigration is a political football.

It is an evil system designed by a conspiracy from our science complex that brings us great people to displace our own great people, which is supported by great people and fought by great people.

All the major voices I see on this so far are in some super-position of 'Wrong' and 'Not Wrong'.

Note to my friends with the incoming administration: It will tear you apart if you don't know where it came from and what it is designed to do.

3:34 PM · Dec 26, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

Word to the wise: It is designed to tear good people apart.

Don't fall for it:

https://users.nber.org/~sewp/references/archive/weinsteinhowandwhygovernment.pdf

3:34 PM · Dec 26, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

I highly recommend learning about the history of where H-1B came from before getting emotionally invested in it.

It was born as a labor tampering conspiracy against American scientists headquartered at the @theNASEM (GUIRR) & @nsf (PRA) under Erich Bloch.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/how-why-government-universities-industry-create-domestic-labor-shortages-of-scientists-high-tech-workers

6:52 AM · Dec 29, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

Posted this later, as an example:

8:55 AM · Dec 29, 2024

@EricRWeinstein

"A growing influx of foreign PhD's into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries to the extent that foreign students are attracted to U.S. doctoral programs as a way of immigrating to the U.S."

-Photograph from the secret @NSF study that led to the H-1B.

8:24 AM · Dec 29, 2024

2025[edit]

@EricRWeinstein

If you don’t understand what is going on with artificial consensus:

Invite me to officially speak at your University. Say on Peer Review. Or 40 years of Quantum Gravity. Or The Great Moderation. Or Esoteric/Exoteric speech in academe. Or H1B. Etc..

Then watch what happens next.

12:34 PM · Sep 4, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

I’m told that I need to explain my silence on 3I/Atlas.

Why?

I just have no insight into this. I know nothing about it. I think it is interesting, and that we should keep an open mind. But it seems to be a comet. 🤷‍♀️

I have zero additional insight on this. Sorry.

3:59 PM · Nov 10, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

You hear me commenting on CPI and inflation, but you don’t hear me commenting on 2026 growth forecasts. Why? Because I know nothing about the latter, while I do know how our economists lie about CPI measurement.

You don’t hear me commenting about family reunification immigration but you do hear me saying that H1B was an unethical scam by the Reagan Era @NSF and @theNASciences. Why? Because I know a LOT about one and little about the other.

3:59 PM · Nov 10, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

In general, I try to stick to things that I have looked at in some depth on where I can at least hope to have some insight.

Of course I fail at this. I don’t always manage to restrain myself from commenting and I frankly don’t think I have any *obligation* to do so…but my opinions on things like 3I/Atlas where I know little are just very close to noise. And I don’t want to contribute to that.

There are a lot of people on @X who seem to have an opinion on most technical things. You can always consult them.

3:59 PM · Nov 10, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

Note Added After Posting: Maybe I should have just said “I think the Mossad sent it. It’s a Secret Jewish Spy Comet sent to control America. That is why Avi Loeb is all over this one.”

Yet another missed opportunity here on @X…too late…too late.

4:11 PM · Nov 10, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

The visa *IS* the abuse. It was created at @NSF/@theNASciences by Erich Bloch, Peter House & Myles Boylan.

Happy to explain how the Reagan-era plot worked, to *any* large national news outlet supporting H1B. On camera.

The program *IS* the fraud. It’s not fraud in the program.

6:03 AM · Nov 13, 2025

Karoline Leavitt

Trump Labor Sec. Lori Chavez-DeRemer ‘Deploying Every Tool’ to End H-1B Visa Abuse https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/11/12/exclusive-trump-labor-sec-lori-chavez-deremer-deploying-every-tool-to-end-h-1b-visa-abuse/

11:02 PM · Nov 12, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

There’s no point having a large labor market w/ a wage mechanism, if we can’t understand that there are no labor shortages in large labor markets w/ wage mechanisms.

This isn’t a centrally planned economy.

What is wrong with us…this just isn’t that hard. No one is this dumb.

6:09 AM · Nov 13, 2025

Krzysztof Ostaszewski

@krzysioactuary

H1-B visa was created in 1990. How was it "Reagan-era plot"?

5:00 PM · Nov 13, 2025

@EricRWeinstein

1986-1990 there was a Reagan era @NSF fraud of a shortfall of >600000 STEM workers.

5:05 PM · Nov 13, 2025

Related Pages[edit]

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