Now that I think about it, Hobbes did have very similar vibes to modern internet edgelords that claim that everyone would do (horrid action here) if only they knew they could get away with it, and also tend to subscribe to the ruinous brainworms of "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" which basically declares everyone being horrible on the internet is just being ironic therefore no actions should ever be taken against "ironic" nazis and the like. 
Show
Weird hill that my decades long parasocial has decided that I will die on here: Perhaps the interpretation has been tortured over the years (in similar fashion to the "glorious pc gaming master race"), but Jerry cited a master's thesis at the time suggesting that he wasn't being ironic about it: http://web.archive.org/web/20070119134542/http://www.msu.edu/user/trescami/thesis.htm
That thesis certainly hasn't been the interpretation I've received for decades from assholes on the internet (and offline as well) citing it to justify pretty much anything abusive, hateful, or otherwise vile they already wanted to make excuses for.
Well yeah, they are literally doing
It's a bit like the "death of the author" chanters (who in many cases never fucking read what they are citing there to begin with) who use those words in combination like a magic spell to transmute any given work into whatever they want to be its intent and purpose. Yes, author intent can and does have limitations and should not be the end of how a reader responds to any given work, but "Patrick Bateman was based, actually" and other such
often wriggle around while saying "death of the author." 