Somehow you seem to think that "giving a highly-critical code review" requires "being a dick" and you're just wrong. Actually, the not-dick code review is a lot

Somehow you seem to think that "giving a highly-critical code review" requires "being a dick" and you're just wrong. Actually, the not-dick code review is a lot more impactful than the dickish one. The dickish one just makes people want to quit instead of getting better. I cannot fathom the internal mindset of a person who says "I'm being a dick, which I know is cruel and bad, but it's okay because of <various political and social factors>". The "knowing it's wrong part" wins! That what it means for something to be wrong! It's still wrong if you rationalize it! And that's before the fact that it's also worse at its actual goals, like preventing bad code and maintaining community and giving valuable feedback.