Probably just confusing ethics and morals - quite common, and I'm not certain I've got the difference worked out myself.
I would say that the GPL is a legal encoding of the ethics which are described by the 5 freedoms, which in turn is an out-working of RMS's personal morality.
The morality is personal, the ethics are public, the license is legal. Each is an imperfect rendering of that on which it is based.
Linus seems to be saying that while he is happy to impose a license on others, he does not want to impose ethics or morality on others.
He seems to rile against those who act as though there own morality is somehow universal and try to impose it and all its consequences on others. Though I may be reading in more than is there.