C++ is still the best choice

Are most criticisms of C++ thinly veiled, "it's too hard for me" excuses? All my profs speak highly of C++ and emphasize the importance of learning it to make high performance applications. Stack Overflow seems to like it as well.

Why does 4chan hate it so?

It's good cause its just C except with optional objects.  And C is good because it's close to assembler so it lets you do things how you want them to do it efficiently and straightforwardly.  In other words, it expresses and reflects the machine's capabilities well.  With other higher level and more abstract languages such as Java and logical/functional programming languages, the languages often allow the programmer to specify "what needs to be done" rather than "how you do it".  For many applications, the "what needs to be done" model simply does not work or is too slow.  For example, writing a real-time operating system.  This is why C/C++ is popular.  You need real-time operating systems everywhere and your only choice is C/c++ or assembler, anything else, and there is not enough control or it does not reflect the capabilities of the hardware well enough. Personally I would prefer C/C++ rather than assembler.