Activists sound less publicly minded in public than in private

Evidence

Activists often met this pressure half-way, by sounding much less publicly minded in public than they sounded in private, using that Mom discourse that I described in chapter 1. Thus, activists themselves played their part in the cycle of political evaporation: they relished publicly minded conversations in their informal gathering — backstage — but rarely found a ”place” for it in public — frontstage. And when activists did manage to squeeze publicly minded ideas into the constricted public sphere, officials and reporters ignored them, anyway; the cycle of political evaporation continued. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1205

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concisely defines ‘the cycle of political evaporation’: private publicly-minded talk that never survives translation into the frontstage.
• XREF: connects to: People voice political opinions privately but suppress them in group settings.; Activists switch to depoliticized language when speaking in public. — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 118; Volunteer groups suppress political talk even though members privately care — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 192 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Contempt for the public cannot be voiced politely even when activists privately feel it #corroborates (0.92) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1316