I recall C++ OOP being the new hotness when I started out and C was always contrasted as the old & busted example. Kind of the "Everything-as-an-object will simplify everything" phase. Windows MFC was the new way, then STL.

Java WORA write once, run anywhere was definitely a thing when it came out. Java Applets came out of the woodwork and were the WASM of their day. Even Cisco ran Java for their router UI for a while, which was painful.

More recently, HN went through a period about 10 years ago where every other article ended in " ... written in Go".

The mantra may not have rhymed with "rewrite X in Y" but the spirit was there.