Take a dear breath, newbie...
Absolutely nothing has changed since the 2000s...
Discourse has been the same for 24 years...
If you want to know & understand what REAL flame-wars were like, you need to have been here in 1998 & 1999 & 2000...
Conservatives vs Libertarians
When men were men and nancy-boys were driven out...
In 1998 and 1999 the discourse was interesting and educational, though heated, because everyone pretty much had to source their assertions.
You couldn’t get away with posting crap that was just freshly made up for long.
I don't think so. Back then everybody was focused on the Clintons. People weren't as abusive to one another as they are now with the Russia vs. Ukraine thing. Also, the articles that were posted tended to be more intelligent. Now there's a pipeline from Breitbart or Gateway Pundit straight to here of articles that are only designed to be abuse fodder.