A topic’s political content matters less than whether it is discussed public-spiritedly.

Evidence

So, a group could have a topic that I might consider ”political” but not treat it with public-spirited conversation, and vice versa. During the Gulf War, I heard a conversation in the recreation groups about how the war might impinge on members’ travel plans. That was not a publicly minded conversation. On the other hand, a conversation in the same group about who would cook the food for a potluck, with jokes about whether the men could do anything other than bring Kentucky Fried, boiled water, and microwaved burritos, came closer to being a publicly minded conversation, since it referred to systematic gender differences, with a slight twinge of righteous indignation. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 152

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows public-spiritedness is a quality of talk, not of topic — potluck banter can be more civic than Gulf War talk.
• XREF: connects to: No topic is inherently political or apolitical — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 139; A political topic need not yield public-spirited talk, nor vice versa

Broader Connections

• A political topic need not yield public-spirited talk, nor vice versa #qualifies (0.90)