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Comment by markdown | Hacker News Reader

> They pump shit out of the sewers, boil it, then use the oil floating on top to dilute cooking oil. At most restaurants.

Citation needed. My understanding was that there are some crooks producing the sewer oil, but that it's used as an adulterant in cooking oil and the restaurants aren't knowingly cooking in sewer oil.

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here you go.

"The business was carried out under the instructions or consent of the restaurant owners for months, the report said."

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2091125/chin...

> Citation needed

This is not Wikipedia.

It's not Wikipedia, but if you are going to judge a whole culture by one news story you had better proove that the problem is widespread

You can certainly request a source if you disagree with the statement but it is not helpful to shout ‘citation needed’ as if this is an encyclopedia and everything you post needs references. You could say ‘I don’t think that is true, do you have references for that?’

I fail to see how your alternative way of phrasing differs in any meaningful way from "citation needed"

It isn't, no. But that comment came as a reply to the sort of extraordinary statement that demands substantiation. Due to Wikipedia's cultural impact, "citation needed" has become a popular way to request exactly that.

It’s not a request. It’s a dismissive demand.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

‘Citation needed’ teaches nothing but it is certainly very easy to type. It might be reasonable if there is a rule that citations are required like on Wikipedia, but here they are not.

The fact that some behaviors are popular doesn’t make them appropriate. Trolling is also quite popular and so are a lot of inappropriate behaviors.

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