A long time the web was like this:

In IE6, you do it like this.

In IE8, you do it like this.

In Firefox, you do it like this.

Then jQuery came along. And it was like 'Now you do it like this, and jQuery handles it for all browsers perfectly'.

Just because some tasks are now performed easily in native javascript on all browsers, doesn't mean it was always that way.

There are lots of legitimate reasons to not use jQuery. Not being in a browser might be one of them. So if someone asks about javascript, one should answer the question (and perhaps suggest that there are libraries such as jquery that handle it better).

SO feels more like a race to answer fast rather than to answer with quality. I think the best way to learn about the language is through the Mozilla Developer Network. I can't speak for everyone but I feel incredibly productive when programming in javascript.

I'd argue that jQuery was great, but now most (if not all) of it can be replaced by native javascript features (e.g. document.querySelector). Today I wouldn't recommend jQuery to anyone.

I suggest learning a functional language (in my case it was Haskell) in parallel, as it opens up new ways of thinking about javascript and problem solving.

correct! reminds me of: http://i.stack.imgur.com/ssRUr.gif

I think SO has gotten a little better about this, but not much, IME