The difference between HTML and Javascript is that it's much harder to use peoples' computers for arbitrary things through only HTML.
With Javascript it's done all the time.
I don't know what this has to do with me reading HN but I can add that HN works without Javascript which is something more websites should do so we can get rid of the expectation that you have the right to run arbitrary script code on peoples' computers when they just want to read a page of text.
You do have the right to run arbitrary script code on people's computers. That's been a fundamental part of what the web is and what it is capable of for over 20 years. You, as a web developer, publisher, what have you, have the right to write whatever code you want, even to render text, just as you have the right to design your own page layout, choose your own fonts and colors. It's up to the user agent to decide whether or not to run the code.
Something is not right just because it has been happening for a long time.
> It's up to the user agent to decide whether or not to run the code.
Yes, it should be.
The problem is that things are constructed so that that solution doesn't work because most people don't know how to do it and if you do it a lot of things break.
That forces people to let others take control over their computers when they may not actually want to do that.
If I let you control my computer, that should be because I want to, not because I'm forced to in order to be able to do what I need to do.
>That forces people to let others take control over their computers when they may not actually want to do that.
This is unnecessarily fear-laden hyperbole. Javascript doesn't force you to let others take control over your computer. And even if it did, for the sake of argument, then literally all code you run does the same, and likely takes far greater control than javascript is capable of.