I promise I'm not trying to be cutesy and meta here, but I read this comment itself as participating in "turn[ing] every conflict to 11". Unless you're focusing on certain parts of the internet, I do not see most discourse as "a nihilist Manichean arms race of immediately having both sides of an argument declare the other as an absolute evil".
It's just an attempt to explain modern social trends, and relate it to a more interpersonal level of shame.
We need to acknowledge this conflict is inherent in latest modern trends: autonomy vs social control. It's a change of governance happening, hence the change of strategies actually become forced.
Shamelessness is nothing new, but was previously found only in rulers and jesters.
One possibility is that all human discourse has ALWAYS had a “Manichaean” character... previously this low quality discourse was restricted to people in your in group in private conversations, whereas now due to the internet a larger portion of total communication takes place in a more public setting.
