"No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens

Satire, framing, and Onion reference

• Many note the post is a direct riff on The Onion’s recurring “No way to prevent this” school-shooting headline, extended to C and buffer overflows.
• Some argue the headline cherry-picks a quote; others say the oversimplification is the point of the joke: highlighting repetition and denial.

C, memory safety, and “skill issue”

• Broad agreement that C has powerful “footguns” and that memory unsafety is systemic, not just a “less skilled programmer” problem.
• Disagreement on whether C’s lack of safety is “the language” vs “implementations”; some point to decades of failed attempts at a drop‑in safe C mode.
• A minority argue safe C is possible with strict discipline, but others counter that large real-world codebases consistently accumulate memory bugs.

Alternatives to C and when C is still justified

• Many say new userspace projects should avoid C when possible; Rust, Go, Java, Nim, Zig, etc., can reach comparable performance without common memory bugs.
• Others insist C is still needed for “portable assembly,” legacy kernels, specific embedded targets (e.g., 8051), or vendor SDKs where no practical alternative exists.
• Some object to proposals that distros should politically discourage packaging new C projects, arguing usefulness should trump language choice.

Rust: power, safety, and pain

• Pro‑Rust points: strong memory safety, enums/sum types, safer defaults, good for kernels, TLS, systems code; “unsafe” is explicit rather than the default.
• Critiques: complexity, steep learning curve with the borrow checker, coarse-grained borrowing, slow compile times, poorer fast-iteration ergonomics.
• Some view Rust as too opinionated or “a hammer where every nail is memory safety”; others say safety should be “table stakes” on modern hardware.

Psychology and culture

• Multiple comments compare C (and guns) to identity objects: some programmers emotionally defend dangerous tools and downplay systemic risk.
• Observations of “language xenophobia,” sunk cost, and zealotry in many communities (Rust, C++, JS, etc.); accusations of Rust “cult” vs. counterclaims that every ecosystem has zealots.
• Several stress that management, incentives, and code quality culture matter as much as language choice.

Miscellaneous tangents

• Side discussions on GC vs manual memory, performance myths, sum types, JS’s this, and a long subthread about furry/anime imagery and professionalism.