Illustration by Lars Leetaru
Everything feels political now, doesn’t it? Normal daily life, conversations, and social media posts often trigger unnecessarily nasty reactions. Remarking on the spring heat? Watching the Academy Awards? Driving a Tesla? Getting a flu shot? They’ve all become political statements in our strange times.
Much of the negative reaction comes from people trolling others—usually others they don’t know—for fun or spite. They enjoy making others angry or defensive, and their point seems to be disorienting the rest of us and sowing confusion. Day-to-day life is challenging even on the best days, but this manufactured political outrage can be exhausting. It makes you want to give up expressing any beliefs or opinions at all—which I think is the trolls’ ultimate goal.
A little voice of doubt in my head popped up as we were finishing work on three pieces in this month’s issue. Two directly involved state and local politics and the other is our Mexican food feature. We didn’t coordinate the stories to run in the same issue, but it turns out May is a great month to talk about college classrooms, Ohio’s primary election (May 5), and Mexican culture, respectively. (Tip of the hat to Cinco de Mayo.)
That voice asked me if we wanted to reconsider publishing pieces that might open us up to trolling by people we don’t know offering political criticisms only they understand. As always, I quickly chased away the doubt by focusing on Cincinnati Magazine’s mission to engage our community through storytelling that makes connections. The topics we tackle this month—taking responsibility for teaching American history to a new generation, a nonprofit leader’s difficult campaign for political office, and celebrating the immigrant legacies of our Mexican brothers and sisters—are exactly the kind of storytelling we take pride in and are known for.
Cincinnati is a complex, diverse city where we embrace unique and interesting people and stories every day. It doesn’t have to be a constant political battleground. Instead, let’s focus on these voices in our heads: Can we have nice things? Can we get along? Can we meet up for amazing tacos this weekend?
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