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I refuse to accept that we must tone down irony/sarcasm because of dumb people, we as humanity have had this problem for a long time, see: Lucian and his trip to the moon. Yet we've never had to do this. People will actively choose to believe any sort of nonesense (will avoid naming stuff but we all know what written nonesense people believe in) regardless if it is written or done in irony/sarcasm or not.

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It's worth keeping in mind that very smart people in the past believed things that we now know are nonsense. And most likely, smart people today believe things that will be considered nonsense in the future.

That, or they were skeptical in dangerous ways. I'm thinking of the example of Richard Feynman questioning if you should brush your teeth, which although is valid to scientifically challenge. There's other examples of "smart people", especially in their own domains openly applying their technique to other fields for the detriment of observers.

“Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they’re in good company.”

— René Descartes

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