Toxic masculinity? It's what makes men brave

The new film Only the Brave recounts the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite unit of firefighters.  Nineteen of this unit died fighting the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona in 2013.

The men who sign up to be Hotshots train hard for the job of wildfire suppression.  It is a grueling job, and the training for it is punishing.  It is also a science; these men have to be both tough and smart.  They choose to do it; they want to do it, and they take enormous pride in their work, especially their successes – saving homes or a thousand-year-old tree.  They travel the country if needed.

When not working, the men are everything the American left abhors.  They are often crude.  They love their women and their children, but they often talk about women in politically incorrect ways.  They blow off steam after work in ways our political elites would find totally unacceptable.  But when there is a wildfire to be fought, they show up ready to risk their lives to save homes and forests.  Their experience and their expertise are unique and probably grossly underappreciated, because most of us have never been aware of such teams of extraordinarily brave and well trained men.

Watching the film, it was hard not to think of Gen. John Kelly's remarks about the ridiculous media storm over President Trump's call to the widow of one of the soldiers killed in Niger.  Gen. Kelly laid out in heart-wrenching detail the care taken when a soldier dies in battle.  He, like President Trump, reiterated that such men are rare, that they choose to serve their country knowing full well the risks that cannot or will not ameliorate the pain their families feel if their lives are lost.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that the president was kind and compassionate when speaking to the young widow, but that crackpot member of the House, Frederica Wilson, thought she would use the opportunity to smear Trump.  Gen. Kelly's talk was an eloquent antidote to her mindless, attention-seeking stunt.  Of course, the media whores intent above all on doing damage to Trump could not let another opportunity go to waste.  

Do they want to know about the tax plan?  No.  Have they noticed that ISIS has been routed from Raqqa?  No.  Are they interested in what happened in Las Vegas?  Old news.  This week, they cared only about Frederica Wilson's specious indictment of Trump.  Those are the depths to which our media have descended.  See Lawrence O'Donnell or Joy Reid, both of MSNBC.  Shame on them.

The film about the Granite Mountain Hotshots demonstrates the camaraderie among such men – military, firefighters, and police.  We see the Hotshots' mutual respect and affection for each other, and the lengths to which they go to help or rescue one another, just like our men and women in the military and law enforcement.  When all but one member of the unit is lost, their families are of course devastated, but they had all lived with the full knowledge of the dangers inherent in their husbands' work – just as the families of our service members do.  Such people are truly selfless in ways most of us cannot imagine.  

The contemptible campaign by the left against men who are actually men has got to stop.  Masculinity is hardly toxic; it is a necessary quality of civilized life.  The left wants a genderless society.  If it succeeds, there will be no society at all.  Pajama boys are losers.  Masculinity should be celebrated, nurtured, and treasured.  Consider all the men at the Las Vegas massacre who saved their own wives and the lives of women they did not know.  It's what real men do, like those who serve in our military and police forces and like those who fight fires.  

Where would we be without them?  We would be over.

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