Judging from the comments there are basically two stereotypes of people in this discussion:
1) The people who "just want to do their work". While they might care about the ramifications of what they're doing they don't think about it actively while working on it
2) The people who care A LOT about their ethics and try to respect them in whatever they do
I guess both sides are important and the way Google phrased these new rules doesn't seem to exclude either side but "banning politics at work" surely isn't good for type #2 and, by extension, the company at large.
I would've categorized those people as type #2. People who constantly talk about totally irrelevant topics (no matter if political or not) I would've just regarded as "chatty".
1) The people who "just want to do their work". While they might care about the ramifications of what they're doing they don't think about it actively while working on it
2) The people who care A LOT about their ethics and try to respect them in whatever they do
I guess both sides are important and the way Google phrased these new rules doesn't seem to exclude either side but "banning politics at work" surely isn't good for type #2 and, by extension, the company at large.