Hmm, well if you are asking as an employee try talking to a manager or boss. Let them know its distracting and you don't ewant to deal with it at work, just do it in a nice way. Hopefully from that they will have a staff meeting and discuss the issue, maybe it will embarrass some of these people from doing it anymore, or scare them off if there are consequences if someone is gossping or being catty and there are complaints about it.
Just don't fall into it and stay out of those catty or gossiping conversatiions, as im sure you know , nothing good comes out of it, and the type of people who do that are the jelous immature ones. Hope it all works out for you. More.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.