I'm the author of the article.
I don't think C should be the first language for most new programmers. The article doesn't recommend that. Rather, my argument is that C provides the lowest level abstraction that (most) modern programmers could ever need. By understanding C, you give yourself the ability to break into the black box of any higher-level language or framework. You're not at their mercy if they provide odd abstraction layers or bugs in their code.
It seems to me, at least anecdotally, that beginner programmers using C feel like they can't do as much as other beginners using languages like Python or Java. Often this is because graphics are so much faster to get to when working with the libraries that those other languages offer. Without a standard graphics library, C feels like the weaker choice. How wrong that is, but I've heard this sentiment from several different beginners.
I think part of what draws me to the Handmade Dev community is that we are finding so many people who know how to code, but want to feel more in control of their programs. Many people following my Handmade Quake project have told me that they're considering learning C for the first time ever. Maybe that's a good position for C to take in 2016 - a language to learn once you've learned your first language and some simple logic but want to understand the hardware better, or figure out exactly what code is running when you turn on your Python interpreter. I hope the community is able to plant that seed in the minds of as many programmers as possible.