What modern, high level programming language should I use?
I'm a C/C++ programmer with 15-20 years in C/C++. I've been looking for a new language for my new project idea (a custom language, because no language seems to work lol, a VM for that language and a multi language development platform). I've considered Crystal, Haskell, Smalltalk, Go and Elixir, but feel free to suggest any language (I want to try something new, so nothing low level, please). What's the best language if performance is critical (high performance is critical, realtime is not), minimalism is required(in terms of standard library, runtime required and syntax) that is fun to program in and has bragging rights? I didn't flat out reject any of them (they're all good), but here are the reasons for me being a little indecisive:
Crystal - too web oriented - it's not for the web, but everyone uses it for it. It's weird.
Haskell - good, but it feels like you're learning the standard library, not the language
Smalltalk - truly minimalistic, but it feels like BASIC and is a little slow
Elixir - once again, good, but focused for web servers and telecommunications (it's not specialized, just the community).
Go - seems like an insult created by google to the intelligence of developers.
I'm really torn between Crystal and Haskell, so compare and address the others, but could you offer an in depth comparison?