I wonder if the guys here who are moaning like the snowflakes they are about Linus' way of conveying the message (not the message itself) are from the US? I sometimes really wonder about the US mindset. The boss is critisizing you justifyably but in an inadequate tone? Hell breaks lose. But as an employee insisting on healthcare, an adequate number of days on paid time off, unionazing or at least have an able workers' representation? Nah, that's unheard of.
How about having some priorities? Grow a pair and chose your battles more wisely. The boss criticizes you? If he's right, own up to your mistakes. Want some rights you are actually entitled to? Yeah, that's what you fight for.
Don't allow your boss to speak to you like that, unionize, and fight for your workers rights - including the right for dignity and respect, listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also for higher pay and better working conditions.
After twenty plus years of watching LKML and Linus's behavior in general, I have to concur with you.
Reading a lot of the 'linus is an asshole' threads, there's generally a clear runup towards an outburst.
Just recently he called some developers out because it seemed evident they weren't testing their patchsets on bare metal.
So it's not just code that gets called out, it's also development methods that end up causing upstream pain.