[klagermkii]

I suspect that BASIC may have got a bad reputation in the same way as PHP or JavaScript did, where the accessibility of the language and infrastructure around it allows people who just want to achieve a specific goal to easily participate.

That influx of people with the attitude of "I don't care how computers work, I just want to know enough to solve my problem" shifts the stereotypes around those language users and may erroneously put the fault of it onto the language itself. It certainly feels that way during hiring, where it seems like developers of vastly differing skill or aptitude tend to cluster heavily around certain "friendly" languages.