Linus doesn’t have to be a dick all the time. However, as I get older, I begin to understand the wisdom behind a monologue in Team America: World Police more and more:

We’re dicks! We’re reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don’t like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn’t appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves… because pussies are an inch and half away from assholes. I don’t know much about this crazy crazy world, but I do know this: if you don’t let us fuck this asshole, we’re going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!

In this case, Linus is a dick who fucks when it’s not appropriate a lot (i.e., is harsh in his critique about bad code in pull requests). Assholes push bad code, and sometimes it’s so bad that it’ll fuck up the whole kernel. Pussies in tech magazines criticize his style of critique. Other pussies get “butt-hurt” because they code like shit too and they can’t or won’t admit it, and they’re so full of shit, they’re pussies who’ve become assholes themselves.

The code in question is, in fact, garbage.