Because what they said is word for word what some people unironically believe.

It's not a joke. People are that stupid.

It's why we have /s they didn't use it so they are serious. That's how this works. If you pretend to be a act like a retarded monkey, say things a retarded monkey would say, and you don't tell people you were joking when there is no physical way to tell otherwise.

People assume you are in fact. A retarded monkey.

I hope they are joking. But I literally have no way to tell.

Oh we can rule out actual discourse on Lemmy, this platform's already dead in the water. There's too many ass burgers on here who will take an extremely literal and narrow interpretation of the series of words you typed ignoring any nuance or implication and assuming the examples you chose to cite are the only that exist. At least a few of them are probably employees of the Russian, North Korean or Chinese governments instructed to add truckloads of bad faith to every corner of the English speaking internet.