Here&#x27;s what I don&#x27;t understand, and I&#x27;m likely the weird one here: Why are political opinions considered private? Is it an anglosaxon thing? Is it a middleclass thing? It feels completely alien to me.<p>Where I come from politics (in one form or another) are the first thing you talk about with new people that you meet. It&#x27;s the most fruitful ground for conversation that goes beyond mundane boring smalltalk nobody cares about.<p>I mean, isn&#x27;t that the whole basis for democracy? That people discuss these things?<p>Hell, isn&#x27;t most mainstream-but-not-quite-pop art political in nature?