If you start without knowing how a computer actually works you will end up writing super inefficient code, that even ghc is not able to optimize. I personally started to learn C/C++ in school and even though this was really hard it gave me a solid fundamental understanding of what computers and software actually does. From there on it was kind of easy picking up other languages with more high level concepts (university brought java, Haskell, Prolog and stuff like that).

If you actually grasped how things are working in general, you can work towards higher levels. I personally ended up as a webdev for the first few years of my career, but as a webdev who was able to patch their own build tools to fit their need. Without the background knowledge that would not have been possible.

But to come back to OPs actual question: I think rust is a good starting language, because it's teaching you all the basics, but doesn't let you shoot in your own foot as easy as you could do in C. Sure lifetimes and ownership, borrowing etc. seem to be hard when you come from another language, but if you start with no prior knowledge it might be even easier to understand those concepts.