I think this is the sequence that led to the quote.

1) People are miffed with Dijkstra due to his abrasive style.

2) John Backus has a back-and-forth with Dijkstra where he calls him arrogant.

3) The community knows of the above.

4) Dijkstra writes paper comparing Computer Science approaches in Europe vs. USA in his usual sharp style.

5) American Scientists perceive the above as dissing them and take umbrage.

6) Alan Kay writes a paper rebutting Dijkstra's paper pointing out that most of the Software is written on the American side.

7) Alan Kay then disses Dijkstra with this quote half-in-annoyance/half-tongue-in-cheek.

Yeah, i knew of the video. That somewhat proves the point i make here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47331352

People only focus on that phrase since it makes a nice "talking point" and ignore all the other interesting things from Kay's talk. For example; i never knew that most of Euler's proofs were wrong w.r.t. rigorous approach as defined today!

The problem is with folks who don't know/have never read (seriously that is) Dijkstra.

For example, every time somebody posts something about Dijkstra on HN/etc. somebody will trot out this silly quote and then others pile on (since it requires no effort) and derail any interesting conversation.

It is human nature to have an opinion on everything and mediocrity often takes great pleasure in tearing down the greats (i mean the true ones) in order to soothe their own egos (since they know they don't measure up) i.e. "see? the great one is as flawed/mundane as us and i am showing him up".

And Dijkstra was Dutch who are famously known to be blunt which is often perceived as arrogance by others :-)