Yeah a lot of people conflate JavaScript with the DOM because the only place most people see js is in a browser where one of its major purposes is manipulating the DOM. Admittedly the DOM has had a checkered past.

But js's story is much bigger than that.

Also I would argue that jQuery just uses a different set of the language's syntax than many programmers would ever encounter just coming from the c-style languages.

It forces you to use closures before many programmers actually know what one is. Some never do or never need to.