[pjc50]

Rather like the school shooting issue, the C issue is bound up with people at the identity level; they insist on the danger because they cannot stand the possibility of the danger being taken away from them. Their ability to use guns or C safely must not be questioned. They percieve it as an insult to take that choice away from them. They are the safe C programmer that never ships a CVE. They know that they themselves would never shoot up a school, so what the problem? Oh it's bad people. Well, that's happening somewhere else to other people, so it's fine and they can carry on.

(edit: someone was helpful to provide an example in this thread; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40438716 )

[jimwhite42]

Here's an attempt to explaining the irrational part of programmers deciding which programming language to use. Part of it goes into more detail on ideas like C programmers insisting 'on the danger because they cannot stand the possibility of the danger being taken away from them'.

"The Pervert's Guide to Computer Programming Languages" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZyvIHYn2zk

It's pretty out there, but I thought also interesting.

[pdimitar]

Congratulations, you just landed in my very small number of favorite comments.