“When you discuss languages it almost becomes like a 
    religious argument. But really a language is just a tool. 
    It’s like arguing, well, which one is better: a hammer or a 
    screwdriver? You tell me what you want to do with it and 
    I’ll tell you which one is better.”

But isn't this comment from a time, like 1984, when programming languages were quite domain specific. Can we not have coherent discussions about General Purpose languages, where we can actually say some languages are better than others, and while specific use cases should be taken into account; that it isn't quite like arguing which is better a screwdriver or a hammer?