> I remember being laughed at when I told more experienced colleagues in 2004 that the only programming language I knew was JavaScript. I wasn’t a “real” programmer yet, according to them, because I hadn’t learned how to write assembly code.

And they'd be right. You're not a real programmer until you understand how the machine functions. This is usually achieved by learning a low-level language like C, Pascal, Fortran, etc. Although I guess you could read a book on computer architecture instead.

Elitism is not the same as having basic standards. I wouldn't trust a doctor who didn't know where my elbow is, and I wouldn't trust a programmer who doesn't know what malloc() is.