Volunteer groups suppress political talk even though members privately care

Evidence

Advocates of democracy have long looked to groups that work on small, local issues as potential schools for wider political concern. Volunteers shared faith in this ideal of civic participation, but in practice, paradoxically, maintaining this hope and faith meant curtailing political discussion: members sounded less publicly minded and less politically creative in groups than they sounded individually. … But here, participants did some of the work of restricting communication themselves: they assumed that talking about politics would only sap vigor from the healthy tasks which volunteer groups realistically could set for themselves, and it would intimidate new members. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 192

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to Tocqueville’s Democracy in America claim that voluntary associations are schools of citizenship, and to the ‘political evaporation’ concept running through this book. — connects to: Volunteers spontaneously raised environmental and racial concerns rather than avoiding them — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 64; People voice political opinions privately but suppress them in group settings.; Volunteers welcomed structured political discussion despite avoiding it informally. — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 100 (+21 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox that the very hope of civic empowerment requires self-censorship of political speech is dense enough to sit with — democratic faith and political silence co-produce each other.
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 192

Broader Connections

• Volunteers suppress political talk because it would sink their feeling of empowerment #corroborates (0.90)
• Group silence about workplace harm coexists with genuine private sympathy #exemplifies (0.80) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 958
• Activists suppress their systemic political analyses when speaking publicly. #complicates (0.72) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 88
• Activists sound less publicly minded in public than in private #complicates (0.72) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1205
• Contempt for the public cannot be voiced politely even when activists privately feel it #complicates (0.72) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1316