Authorities define citizenship as technical fact-absorbing so activists mute politics in public forums

Evidence

Officials assumed that their job was to distribute technical facts to an overly emotional, befuddled, self-interested citizenry. And activists often — though by no means always — implicitly tried to comply with officials’ definitions of participation, by sounding more like volunteers in official, public forums than they sounded in their own meetings and in casual contexts. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1373

Categorization

• XREF: Eliasoph’s ‘thin model of citizenship’ parallels theories of depoliticization and expert-driven governance elsewhere in civic-life literature. — connects to: Citizens restrict themselves to technical criticism and never question political goals — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 975; Citizenship is defined as exclusive to expert others who possess all facts — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 961; Requiring technical facts to justify speech silences ordinary citizens entirely — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 991 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Activists suppress their systemic political analyses when speaking publicly. #corroborates (0.95) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 88
• The administrative state produces unpolitical citizens within a political society #corroborates (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2337