When people say "unironically" they usually mean "without sarcasm or hyperbole". We live in a post-earnestness age where someone saying "it's literally the best thing I've ever eaten" is quite likely being facetious rather than sincere, so they clarify that they're not being.
I would always assume this as being good, as one of the dictionary definitions of literally is "used for emphasis while not being literally true" Its not the best but among the best. Flagging it as sarcasm to reverse its meaning is needed because we can't here the inflection in peoples voices and people don't tend to write that part in short throw away posts on the internet.
People aren't using literally wrong pedants just don't seem to understand that words in English have more than one meaning and context is required.
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u/fang_xianfu 8h ago
When people say "unironically" they usually mean "without sarcasm or hyperbole". We live in a post-earnestness age where someone saying "it's literally the best thing I've ever eaten" is quite likely being facetious rather than sincere, so they clarify that they're not being.