I assume he is jokingly suggesting that the detractors are wrong.
Yes, I believe the detractors are wrong. And I believe they are especially wrong about generics. One of CloudFlare's most hard core C++/Boost guys 'tried out' Go to see how he liked it and is rewriting everything that needed redoing in Go.
The combination of a 'small, powerful' language that supports multicore machines and the good standard library means people can _get things done_.
They're entitled to their opinion, though. Lameness is in the eye of the beholder. I think the Slashdot commenter on the iPod is right. It is lame to accept that we can't just have a huge collection of music, which is what convincing people to pay the exorbitant amounts the RIAA demands for music or using Spotify amounts to.
Keep in mind that CmdrTaco's comment was made in 2001.
CmdrTaco was of course entitled to his opinion, and nobody is suggesting that we take from him that right. However most would also say that in their opinions, which they are also entitled to, his assessment was very lame.
I assume he is jokingly suggesting that the detractors are wrong.