For information this is the changes that was made: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ker...c54469c11f

This sort of remind me of RMS doesn't want his comment removed from the glibc manual: https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual...ogram.html

In both cases these are the persons' personal projects with their small touches that slowly are turning into corporate projects and being cleaned of any personal touch.

As far as the code of conduct is concerned there wasn't any before, what was placed there was an inside joke, the "code-of-conflict" which basically said "work well on your code, be sure of yourself because critics of it are incoming, and critics are needed to keep this thing alive".

The new one is a normal work-place "things that shouldn't even have to be mentioned" kind of list of things you shouldn't do. This is a big project after all and it should act like a big company.
I don't think this has anything to do with "open atmosphere" or all the "SJW" side-talk on the internet, or that politics has anything to do with this. While the RMS comment does have because he is so into it. It seems to be the trend these days to want to tag any single change as a political move.
I'd tag this one as a corporate move/code-cleaning more than anything else. You wouldn't do that at your office, don't do that here. Like most people at work you don't usually spend your time reading code of conducts but get back to your task, keep it technical and professional.