The C programming language is anything but a high-level language. It's the middle ground between assembly and high-level language. This is why C is so powerful. But it's precisely this influence that they're trying to undermine or hide. Because it makes hacks possible.

Hackers have been Enemy of the State nr.1 since the 1980s.

By the way, he's probably not dead at all.
Karl Koch, one of the biggest hackers of the 1980s, was found burned to death in Germany in 1989, and to this day, the autopsy report has not been released.