[scoutt]

Why always give the most contort examples? Jeez...

OP is asking about a language to learn. Let them fail, to learn and understand.

And after all, C was and actually is moving the world forward, and thanks to C you have the possibility to write and run programs in Rust. Rust can't do anything if not by calling C APIs. Removing C code from any system is removing the legs from the crab.

So why not choosing C? Seems wise to me. Think about the thousands of lines of C code executing across the world so you can just download a crate. It seems to me that your first interest, as a Rust user, is to have C programmers around so you can run your Rust code.

I'll contribute by telling my personal experience after 20 years of embedded and system C: the fear spread by Rustaceans (regarding UB) is uber-exaggerated, specially at learning stages.

Before you bring exploits up, not every C application is connected to internet or has a user interface or runs as root. Just a portion.