Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

Have you read The Promise? You don't need to, it's not very good. But it sets up the foundations of the Air Acolytes as basically a group of Air Nomad/Avatar fans, who chose independently to live and preserve the ways of the Air Nomads. It touched on cultural appropriation and Aang's discomfort with the way his people were fetishised, but essentially he didn't so much set them up, as work with them to make sure they didn't fuck everything up.