The Conservative Grievance Business Is Always Hiring | Defector

"It's more accurate to say that Marine Todd, as a conservative figure of fantasy and the beefy personification of a foundational urge that runs through that movement, is both very old and very current. That fantasy is about violence, but it is also about impunity—"God was busy protecting America's military," Todd tells his professor, once he comes to, "who are out protecting your right to say stupid shit like that, so he sent me to fill in.""

"That would be if he was a real person, though, and Marine Todd was the invented hero in a classic bit of dippy Obama-era conservative memecraft. In the original story, Marine Todd knocks out a cocky atheist college professor in front of his classmates to prove the existence of God. There are many other versions of this fable; the evangelical God's Not Dead franchise, now at five films, should probably give it an onscreen story credit."

Marine Todd is an invented conservative-hero meme who, in the original story, knocks out a cocky atheist college professor to prove God's existence. The figure embodies a longstanding reactionary fantasy that celebrates violence and claims divine protection and impunity, as in the line 'God was busy protecting America's military... so he sent me to fill in.' Conservative entertainment franchises such as God's Not Dead retell versions of the fable. The conservative movement cultivates circumstances and structures that enable such impunity. Samantha Fulnecky, a University of Oklahoma student, submitted a 742-word gender-perceptions essay that earned zero points and read as online-evangelical boilerplate.

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