[throw10920]

> It's not a simple matter of syntax -- I don't think it can be fundamentally still be Lisp and be broadly appealing.

Python is, semantically, pretty similar to Common Lisp - they have far more in Common than they do with C++, for instance. So, even if it's not the syntax, it's clearly not the semantics or language behavior, either.

I'm pretty sure it's the syntax, though. You used the word "unappealing", which often refers to a surface attraction or draw. I think that this is absolutely correct - Lisps are unpopular in large part to their very weird syntax, and indeed, one of the most common comments that you'll hear when you bring up Lisp is "Is that the weird one with all of the parentheses?"

This is further reinforced by the fact that most programmers have never even tried to run a single line of a Lisp - and the vast majority haven't invested enough time to learn enough to write a non-trivial program with it, and therefore haven't had enough exposure to even judge whether they like the language or not. Therefore, any reason for unpopularity must be superficial.

[kazinator]

It's very easy to shallowly dismiss something if

- none of your friends or coworkers use it.

- there are few jobs requiring it.

Basically, you can mock it all you want with practically zero social risk.

Jokes that target people of some specific nationality or regional group are not as tolerated any more nowadays, perhaps depending on the social company, but this is like those jokes. For instance "dumb Polack" jokes.

You've heard the one: "Frederic Chopin and Nicolaus Copernicus walk into a bar, immediately bespying Marie Curie sitting by herself. Stanislaw Lem is tending bar, pouring her a drink. ..."