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Is population density the reason Americans can't discuss politics?

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a work dinner with other members of my team. We were at an amazing restaurant in downtown Austin. The appetizers had come and gone, the drinks had arrived, and conversation had started to open up a bit from the perfunctory discussions of work projects and the weather.

People were fidgeting at the mere mention of the word politics, and another member of the engineering team sitting across from me chuckled as if to dispel the tension. Another coworker interjected, “It’s so hard making friends as a parent, I don’t want to risk losing out on a friendship over political beliefs.” Several others nodded in agreement. Fortunately, Vinay wasn’t interested in embarrassing me and continued, “In Bangalore, my family lives in an apartment building and when I go home to visit, I have conversations with a couple dozen people every day.

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