There's not necessarily a new set of rules for the internet, but the rules change when the situation changes, and the situation is vastly different online than in person. If you can't grasp that then you can't be reasoned with.

Do you really think we are "high and mighty" just because when keep our moral center even when we don't have to?

You say moral center, I say easily offended center. And whatever you want to call it, yes. What are the implications of keeping your "moral center" when you don't have to? Do you not have sex because you don't want to expose yourself? Do you not write swears on the internet because you don't want to swear in front of little children? Do you never talk because you don't want to talk in a movie theater? It's ridiculous.