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?

>>31
Informative post. Perhaps you can give me some guidance. I'm OP, by the way. I would like to write various tools to automate various professional tasks. For this, I agree that a scripting language is optimal.

But I also would eventually want (possibly need) to make simulations. For this, I've always been told that C++ was the way to go. Some programming boards I've been lurking pretty much make fun of Java/C# for being bloated. To what extent is this true? I've also been told that C++ is the most powerful language out there.

Should I just ditch C++ and go for Java and C? Are there any others you would recommend instead?