Avoiding public-spirited speech denies citizens practice in public-spirited thinking.

Evidence

Not airing public-spiritedness leaves litthe room for people to gain practice in thinking public-spiritedly (besides, total protection from deception is impossible — the really manipulative liars will be clever enough to sound highminded even in a rhetorical climate that is poisoned with excessive expressions of self-interest, so why not risk expressing trust and concern?). But for citizens of Amargo, the public speech context itself seemed so flawed that it was hard to speak public-spiritedly. The cycle of political evaporation begins here, when citizens assume that talking politics in a publicly minded way is wrong and ”out of place” in so many frontstage places, and, like Cordelia, can only mutter their publicly spirited sentiments under their breath. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1718

Categorization

• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1718
• XREF: connects to: Suppressing unpopular speech also silences the unconventional ideas society needs — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1067; Avoiding public life reveals weakness, not superior moral worth — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2000; A political topic need not yield public-spirited talk, nor vice versa

Broader Connections

• Suppressing unpopular speech also silences the unconventional ideas society needs #corroborates (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1067
• Avoiding public life reveals weakness, not superior moral worth #corroborates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2000
• A political topic need not yield public-spirited talk, nor vice versa #qualifies (0.70)