Seriously, though: Why is “Do not eat” already in quotes on the packaging?
There’s a long history of people misunderstanding the purpose of quotation marks and using them for emphasis. It’s not quite to the point where the misunderstanding has taken over, and at this point it is unlikely given the fact that asterisks seem to have overtaken that role, but I remember memes about this from twenty years ago or so.
It’s even more pronounced in countries where English is not a primary language, which is likely where most silica gel packets are packed.
Using quotation marks as a replacment for bold / fat type when not available will never be not funny to me.
“Award winning”
(In this case it’s like “We’re not writing ‘Do not eat’ here that’s just a quote from someone saying that”)
Fun fact, those things aren’t dangerous to eat because they are toxic (usually, unless they’re coated with something else).
They’re dangerous to eat because they are choking hazards, or may cause an intestinal blockage. More likely in children but not impossible in adults.
Punctuation is important
Have you even seen Reddit or Lemmy? Hell, look at a news site: they barely know to put a space between words. What are we hoping about commas, hyphens, or - god forbid - semi-colons?
