I think it's important to separate complaints about languages themselves and those about the spirit of the language and how it came into being. For example, I t

I think it's important to separate complaints about languages themselves and those about the spirit of the language and how it came into being. For example, I think people who hate on Java and Perl would probably agree that their designers had noble goals and clear thinking but, being human, produced flawed implementations. On the other hand, there are deeper things to legitimately hate in the spirit of languages and how they came to be. C++'s 'everything but the kitchen sink' feature set reveals a lack of the essential job of curation in its design. I think it's fair (and not silly) to 'hate' this flaw, since it means you've observed and learned from that mistake. PHP's evolution has stemmed from the "screw it, just hack it out" mentality, with less thought to long term consequences of design decisions and inconsistencies. This attitude bleeds into the work built with it. I think it's fair to 'hate' these things, since they are important cautionary tales for people who set out to build something new for the world.