Open source projects needs someone to bring down the hammer and have final words, or else it will slowly descend into bikeshedding hell where nothing gets done. I fear for the future of Python.
Or maybe Linus isn’t afraid to say what’s on his mind, and that’s why people respect him.
You should try it some time. I know when I started doing it on here, my karma plummeted (real world analogue is “reputation” or social standing). But at least my conscience is clear.
I'm not saying violent communication isn't allowed or is wrong. I'm saying a culture that protects its usage and normalizes it is unsustainable. I prefer to strive toward minimizing its usage and cultivating cultures oriented around everyone's physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and mental well-being. Establishing nonviolent communication as an explicit cultural norm is a step toward that. Same goes for community accountability practices and transformative justice practices, which aim to help individuals and the collective by analyzing systemic cultural components to see how sustainable they are.
Torvalds is pretty sustainable though. Since 1991 he's handling it. He also explained on why he needs to use aggressive language, can't find the source though. He said that unless you put some really strong words into a person, they won't stop with their (wrong, bad) project and get sad when it's rejected after they finish it.
Well, you get physical well-being for free on Internet discussions. For the rest, I don't know. People get triggered over harmless shit so often, I just shake my head for such stupidity. You mentioned spiritual well-being. I contradict and say that if I disrespect your religion (not you as a person) and you get triggered by it (love that word) it's entirely your problem.
But my Internet communication experiences also include games, so these words are not even the worst you could hear. With that in mind, the above pretty much applies all the time.
Physical well-being isn't free on the internet, since every aspect of well-being can be affected by every other one. Chronic emotional stress has physical effects, for instance. Bullying can impact each aspect. My spiritual wellbeing isn't about religion. It's about what the quality of connection is between myself and others. I prefer peaceful connection and hypothesize it's healthier for me in the long-run.
I'm right there with you that if someone triggers themselves over my words, the triggered person is responsible for how they react/respond to it. I also choose to share in the responsibility because whether I intended for that outcome or not, it still happened as a result of someone's personal state encountering my words/actions. I aim to respond compassionately to them and hopefully empathize with where they're at in a way that invites healing around both them triggering in the moment and whatever they're carrying from the past. I view this as my responsibility because I've learned how to heal around several of my own issues and wish to help others learn how to heal themselves.
By doing so, I can contribute to cultures in ways that promote wellbeing beyond the context of whatever we're coming together to do.
Also, Linus's behavior isn't the only way to operate and his goals can be met in other ways. Him doing this since 1991 doesn't necessarily mean it's a sustainable way to be for him... It simply means his behavior doesn't outweigh the usefulness of his contributions, yet.
It almost feels like hero worship.