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There is precious little in our culture today not affected by “wokeness” or touchy-feely sensitivity training.

Just recently we reported here how the U.S. Navy SEALs and the Navy SWCC have changed their creed and ethos statements to remove any references to gender, doing away with terms like “brotherhood” and “man.”

According to Naval Special Warfare spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Stroup, “The changes do not in any way reflect lowering standards of entry, rather they ensure that all those who meet the requirements to train to become a SEAL or SWCC are represented in the ethos or creed they live out.”

President Trump, apparently not a fan of wokeness or touchy-feely sensitivity, pledged to reverse the initiative by the U.S. Navy SEALs, tweeting on October 1, “I will be overturning this ridiculous order immediately!”

Then he got COVID, which understandably changed his priorities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army has produced a “Holistic Health and Fitness Manual” (FM 7-22), part of the Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) System designed to “build physical lethality and mental toughness to win quickly and return home healthy.”

Nothing touchy-feely about that per se, but part of the manual includes sections on productive self-talk to help with “cognitive reframing” so soldiers can recognize “the positive in an otherwise suboptimal situation.”

One of the examples provided by the Army: “Running up hills: hills are my friend. They only make me stronger.”

Another example: “Hot weather training: this training is preparing me to be more lethal in the desert.”

However, soldiers long ago learned how to use humor for “cognitive reframing” in suboptimal situations. Of course, most of it is deeply politically incorrect.

Take this piece of combat artistry.

Or this anecdote, recalled by Tom Peter, a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, who spent an entire year with U.S. forces in Iraq’s Diyala Province, in 2006.

Peter recalls the popularity at the time of “the penis game” made popular in the movie “Waiting.” You win the game by tricking someone into looking at your exposed genitalia, and, if successful, win a chance to hit them as hard as you can.

“They thought it was the greatest thing ever,” said Peter. “It got to the point where you would be out on a mission with them and the gunner would take out his fucking scrotum and just have it hanging out of his pants while he was driving around. You’re driving through areas that could be hostile or hit an IED and a guy’s dick is hanging out in your face.”

“Thankfully we were not,” he added. “That could have been problematic.”

Sub-optimal for sure.

Capt. Antonio Salinas, a veteran of combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and the author of the book Siren’s Song: The Allure of War, knows very well how humor is used to cognitively reframe: “There were times that we were en route to help another platoon in heavy contact on the road—all the while discussing the proper sound of a blow job as conducted by our favorite porn stars.

“The reality is that modern warriors bullshit, joke, and laugh to prepare ourselves for the potential crossing into death. We bullshit as if we were in the dugout and drunk at a neighborhood softball game.”

Whatever it takes to stay focused and lethal, we can get behind.