I think a lot of people overestimate how well sarcasm can be determined on the internet. Sarcasm detection involves not only culture but also age, morals, and politics. Something that may appear as sarcasm to one person/group when addressed to an "in-group" would appear as someone actually saying that seriously to an "out-group", especially when it reinforces any kind of stereotype. Something that would be easily detected as sarcasm by a friend would be treated absolutely seriously by my parents, and my cousins who are almost a generation younger than me often write sarcasm I can't detect.
There's only one rule of sarcasm on the internet, if you want to be sarcastic, always end your comment with /s, otherwise avoid it.
To get back to the topic, I detected the OP's post as sarcasm, but I had to read it most of the way through it before I determined it was probably sarcasm, but I wasn't 100% sure.
I couldn't disagree more. The rule of sarcasm on the internet is the same as every other rule where everyone is anonymous. Give people the benefit of the doubt.
Moreover, the claim that sarcasm can't be detected on the internet is extremely dubious. It's really not that hard. The person puts extra effort into showing how the thing that they are pretending to believe is an absurd thing to believe. This is not culture or age dependent.
"It's awful how those people are doing all that good stuff" is a statement that requires you to know zero context. An alien can detect that this sentence is absurd. Moreover, if someone actually believes something absurd, and presents it this way, it doesn't matter if it's sarcasm or not, since they aren't convincing anyone.
The rules of communication trump the rule of sarcasm. If you want to get your message across clearly, avoid disambiguation. When the target audience misunderstands the message, that's on the author.
If I wanted to hunt for a hidden meaning in written text, I'd rather read poetry.
There's only one rule of sarcasm on the internet, if you want to be sarcastic, always end your comment with /s, otherwise avoid it.
To get back to the topic, I detected the OP's post as sarcasm, but I had to read it most of the way through it before I determined it was probably sarcasm, but I wasn't 100% sure.