Tragedy is not a template for masculinity

Published January 29, 2026 6:00am ET



The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis is a tragedy. A 37-year-old intensive care nurse is dead. His family is grieving. Nothing written afterward should lose sight of that human reality.

But tragedy does not require us to suspend judgment, nor does it obligate us to turn a contested incident into a moral lesson about masculinity.

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