> I'm not sure what the people who are taken aback by it usually read -- or what did they expect to find here.

They don't understand what they're reading, so instead of asking for an explanation, they attack the lowest hanging fruit (the 'lol').

It's just a form of position signalling, basically they assume everyone else understands it and they want to be in that 'in-group', so they try and look smart by tearing it down by attacking nothings.