While I don't have a lot of experience living a hundred years ago, it seems to me that, yes, these days, peoples' initial reactions upon being disagreed with is to take offense. It's like they never expected their perception of things to be out of line with others'!
For me, my first reaction when someone disagrees with my belief system is: "juicy!" or "refreshing!" Of course I live in Toronto, the land of people too polite to disagree and it makes me nauseous every time I hear someone agree out of fear of confrontation.
Have you spent much time on the Politics board?
Let me start things off in the spirit of your thread and propose that this is actually
NOT a new thing.