My issue isn't what he said, it's how he said it. He could have been more respectful about the other person's opinion about go, but "I suspect he didn't know or think much about [feautures of go]" suggests a very prevalent judgmental attitude towards CS I feel brings the culture of the industry down.

> He instead emphatically talked about how much he loved that "the Go developers knew that all you need is a for loop. Someone brought Scala into my company and I hate the mental shift."

All you need is a for loop? Interesting! Why did they say that? What design decisions informs this approach?

If someone with neither experience in scala or go were to choose one language for this project, why would they use Go or Scala?

If the guy truly has no idea what he's talking about, then it should be evident just by him speaking and you asking questions. If he does, then at best you learn something new or at worse hear a different perspective. Be an active listener and engage with what the other person is saying. You can be critical without being judgmental. It's sort of impossible to have bad faith in this way, because you're taking what the other person is saying seriously instead of writing them off.