> demanding citations is the favorite trick of people who want to waste your time precisely because they disagree with you and no matter what you come up with, they'll never give in. therefore, one should never give in to it.

That's incredibly dumb.

First, unless you are making a baseless claim, you have supposedly already done the research, so presenting evidence of your claim ought to not be any more of a burden on your time than making the claim was.

Second, you don't need the other party to accept the evidence you present, particularly if they are disagreeing in bad faith. No one can use the "asking for evidence" trick if you have presented the evidence.

Third, which is more efficient: having one person who made the claim present the evidence to back it up, or to make every single person who comes across the claim look up the evidence independently? Making baseless claims wastes everyone's time (and coincidentally is the actual favorite trick of those who want to waste your time because they disagree with you).

Fourth, if you give up on doing things you ought to because you're worried there will continue to be assholes on the internet afterwards, you'll never do much of anything at all.

Fifth, which type of comment do you prefer to read: the one that makes a claim without evidence which maybe you'll double check at some point if you have time, or the one that quickly gives you the evidence right there? Write the type of comments you like to read.