>Torvalds doesn't want a "code of conduct," saying that "venting of frustrations and anger is actually necessary, and trying to come up with some ‘code of conduct’ that says that people should be ‘respectful’ and ‘polite’ is just so much crap and bullshit.”
This is interesting when one compares it with other projects such as Django which have gone the whole other way in addressing modern views of how to approach diversity, gender issues, conduct etc.
Arent diversity and gender issues orthogonal to this? You can have room full of diverse women, man, blacks, whites, young, old swearing a lot. You can have young-white-male-only group talking nicely to each other (while still being exclusive club rejecting anyone else).
English is not, as far as I know, Linus's first language. I presume that any "verbal weaponry" he possesses is adopted and adapted from the "greater developer lexicon" (I just made that up) he absorbed through years of mailing-list / IRC exposure.
Yes, good debaters shouldn't resort to emotionally laden language, but the best debaters just ignore it in the first place.
Children in Finland start learning Engish in primary school, and Torvalds has lived in the US for the last 17 years, so I think you greatly over-emphasize mailing-list/IRC exposure.
What you said about "the best debaters just ignore it in the first place" is incorrect. Debates are meant to convince others, so the debater must take the listeners into account. If the listeners can be swayed by the opponent's emotionally laden language - and we are all human - then the debater must not ignore it.
The obvious responses are to use emotionally laden language in kind, or to call out the opponent for dressing bad logic behind good clothing.
I think this is actually a fairly common case. Take a hard-left political movement; generally quite diverse (in particular, socialist movements tend to have very high representation of women) and yet also very shout-y and argumentative.
The opposite also happens; a common complaint of highly reactionary commentators is that people aren't responding 'civilly' to their regressive nonsense about the threat posed by the gays or how women's' place is in the home or whatever, but are instead using rude words and personal attacks.
It takes a certain type of person who has the grown a sense of technical entitlement and the necessary confidence to believe they're right and that they belong, even when Linus is making up a dozen colorful insults for the things they've done. That certain type of person could be anyone, but there is a strong bias towards those who can find role models that resemble themselves, those who were encouraged and had the resources to get into tech at a young age, etc.
His reasons are bullshit. I don't care how frustrated you are, learn to control your emotions. Its very much possible to be direct without being an ass. Probably more effective too.
And there we go, talking shit about someone talking shit, all while complaining the when someone else talks shit it is not acceptable.
> I don't care how frustrated you are, learn to control your emotions. Its very much possible to be direct without being an ass. Probably more effective too.
Well, apply the same logic to yourself before requiring it from someone else.
This is interesting when one compares it with other projects such as Django which have gone the whole other way in addressing modern views of how to approach diversity, gender issues, conduct etc.