It’s a straw man meant to excuse bad behavior as the only way to provide strong direction. Pushovers are not the under discussion here: Torvalds’ behavior is.
Or perhaps an acknowledgement that people are imperfect and the world is imperfect and, if you want to accomplish things, x all-too-common defect is preferable to y all-too-common defect.
I disagree that that level of asshole behavior is all-too-common. I've never encountered anybody like Linus professionally and if I did I simply wouldn't work with/for/over them.
In other contexts, perhaps. I don’t read the comment I initially replied to as supporting that interpretation, even reading charitably. They explicitly separate people into (primarily) two groups: "I'll take an asshole over a pushover any day, and most of us are pushovers."
They very clearly are setting up a false dichotomy. They support one side by stating that it is preferable to the other (when there are no sides to begin with).
You have to be willfully ignorant to read it otherwise.
As blatant support of this,
"People give up ability to say certain things in the name of inclusion, and then lose ability to think those things in the first place."
This is a clear testament that there are two sides and you must 'give up' something (ie: become a pushover) to not be an asshole.
