Honestly if you're starting from scratch, I'd say learn rust. It's not that hard if it's your first language because you don't have to unlearn stuffs from other languages. Plus the compilation errors will really teach you what you did wrong how to fix things. And using clippy, it'll tell you how to do things better and remove redundancies.

C is easy to learn in terms of syntax, but it's hard to write correct code as the program gets more complex. Python is easy to write but doesn't teach you much. I find rust as easy to write as python, but c like speed.

There is no best way to start. Start with what is fun and chase what is fun. A lot of very bad advice is given about supposed ways to start learning programming that can poison your experience (like people say garbage collected languages are bad because you won't "appreciate" manual memory management), but that's all bullshit. Learning any language will make you better at learning other languages.

I started with Java, I think it's fine for starting. I think Python is a great way to start because there's a bunch of content for getting started with it. But ultimately, start with whatever you find fun enough to keep you interested and pushing through.

I learned it by doing small bash and python scripts first, then moved on to base C.

So i think id start with python. But difficulty is hard to ascertain tbh. You could also just start in the language you think youre gonna use. Doing a good ol hello world program in it is always a good prelim fit test. If the process seems fairly intuitive, move on to the next program.

Theres probably two big hands on ways of learning it. One is just writing your own tools when you need em for the practice of it, the other being following a structured course, where you get little assignments of increasing complexity, classic classroom style.

And all of this probably underlines the main point beautifully. The easiest language to learn is the one you find fun enough to keep practicing with. Because its the ongoing practice thats the real gold.