The current GamerGater/anti-SJW conspiracy theory is that someone or a group with an agenda "got to" Linus and this is the result of a struggle session that will eventually lead to his ouster from kernel dev, to be replaced with their agents of influence (whoever "they" are).

I don't want to say that they have a convincing case, but just recently Guido stepped down from Python maintenance, and soon after there was a push to excise "master" and "slave" from all documentation. And you know what Ian Fleming said: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence...

Nevertheless, from my standpoint it's a bit heartening to see Linus openly acknowledge his mistakes and take steps to change the Linux culture. We shall see what fruit these steps bear.