\nOriginally from Laurence Kesterson\/The Philadephia Inquirer, this picture has become popular online as an image of the ominous, random, black violence which Colin Flaherty deceptively claims is sweeping the nation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cGroups of black youths roam the streets looking for a solitary pedestrian, preferably white (hence the alternate name \u2018polar-bearing\u2019) but Asian or Hispanic will do. The trick is to knock him to the ground with a single punch. . . .\u00a0Widely available video exists of almost all Knockout incidents, since the really cool thing is to have your buddies film it and upload it to YouTube. And it\u2019s so simple to do in an age when every moronic savage has his own \u2018smart phone.'\u201d \u2014<\/span>Mark Steyn, National Review Online<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
T<\/strong>he stories are chilling\u2013conjuring a world of senseless, alien violence as incomprehensible as it is reprehensible. Rightfully, we are mortified and outraged and we fear for a country in which\u00a0A Clockwork Orange\u00a0<\/em>ultra-violence finds life in our streets. The analysis of many pundits\u00a0is startling: these attacks are racially motivated hate crimes against whites by black youths and the media and our politicians refuse to identify these racist motives out of political correctness.<\/span><\/p>\n
What goes mostly unspoken in these commentaries on the \u201cknockout game\u201d is the idea that these assaults are racially motivated and so white people should be wary of groups of black men. Some take this further and blame the \u201cliberal media\u201d for the violence, since the media allegedly hid the \u201ctruth\u201d about the race of the criminals. If only the media would tell us when black people attack white people, we\u2019d know to not trust them and we\u2019d be safe, the logic goes.<\/p>\n
But are these pundits correct? Are these crimes committed by roaming packs of black \u201csavages\u201d against white people?<\/p>\n
H<\/strong>ere\u2019s the fascinating thing about this \u201cspreading<\/a>\u201d trend: nobody seems to have any evidence that it\u2019s spreading, or that it\u2019s new, or that it\u2019s racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted.\u00a0This hasn\u2019t stopped Mark Steyn<\/a>, Thomas Sowell<\/a>, and Matt Walsh<\/a> from describing this specifically as a crime committed by blacks against whites, CNN from claiming that it is \u201cspreading,\u201d or <\/span>Alec Torres at NRO<\/a> from say it is \u201cevidently increasing [in] popularity.\u201d Most sources claim that it is spreading, and a number of sources claim that it is racially motivated. But how do they know? Where are they getting their data from?<\/span><\/p>\n
Alec Torres<\/a>\u00a0wrote what\u00a0appears<\/em>\u00a0to be the most thorough survey of all the reported accounts of the \u201cknockout game,\u201d but these \u201creports\u201d are actually newspaper reports, not police reports, so they don\u2019t give us a reliable picture. Yet, Torres is confident enough to conclude: \u201cMost of the victims have been whites and Asians, and attackers tend to target Jews, immigrants, and the elderly in particular. Most of the attackers have been African American.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost\u201d is an awfully slippery word to describe a increasingly popular, violent hate crime.<\/p>\n
W<\/strong>hat\u2019s very perplexing about Torres\u2019s post is that he quotes multiple times from an award-winning article by John H. Tucker in Riverfront Times<\/em>\u00a0titled,\u00a0Knockout King: Kids call it a game. Academics call it a bogus trend. Cops call it murder.<\/a>\u00a0I say this citation is perplexing because Tucker\u2019s article explains quite clearly why sweeping claims about rising incidences of the \u201cknockout game\u201d and the racial identities of the perpetrators and victims are bogus. Tucker helps us see how many commentaries about these assaults are deeply flawed.<\/p>\n
First of all, we don\u2019t have reliable data:<\/p>\n
A variety of factors make it impossible to quantify how many assaults can be attributed to Knockout King. For one, police often categorize such attacks as attempted robberies; though participants say theft isn\u2019t the motive, they\u2019ve been known to add larceny to injury when the opportunity presents itself. Moreover, because victims usually don\u2019t get a good look at their assailant, incidents seldom result in charges. Many of the most vulnerable victims don\u2019t file police reports, either because they fear revenge or were taught in their native countries not to trust police.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In order to draw any remotely competent conclusion about these assaults, you\u2019d have to deal with all the above problems and also consider if crimes by whites are reported as frequently as crimes by blacks, whether teens of other races might refer to the game by another name or not label it at all, how the percentage of attacks by blacks compares to the general percentage of assaults by black teens, and so on. Analyzing data is not as simple as watching some YouTube videos and Googling \u201cknockout game.\u201d Here\u2019s Tucker again:<\/p>\n
Given that 4.3 million violent attacks were reported by U.S. citizens in 2009, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey, Males [a research fellow at the nonprofit\u00a0Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice]\u00a0says reporters should know better than to highlight a handful of random attacks by kids and call it journalism. It\u2019s the same thing as plucking a few instances of attackers with Jewish surnames who beat up non-Jews and declaring it a \u201ctroubling new trend,\u201d he argues.<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
All but two of the ten victims\u00a0. . .<\/em>\u00a0interviewed were white (one was black and was Latino), and all of the players were black. But Knockout King does not appear to be bounded by race. Jason, from St. Louis County, says two white friends were part of his punch-out crew. One Dutchtown woman, agreeing to speak on the condition that her name not be published, says police caught her son, who is white, playing Knockout King. . . .<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a black thing, it\u2019s a kid thing,\u201d the woman says. \u201cIt\u2019s teenage kids trying to be cool. My son\u2019s as white as can be. He doesn\u2019t have a black bone in his body.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
How could Torres read this article and yet still come to the conclusion that the assaults are on the rise and that \u201cmost\u201d of them involve black assailants and white or asian victims? In his defense, other pundits have drawn the same conclusion, despite the lack of evidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Of course, there\u00a0are<\/em> some\u00a0things we can confidently say about these crimes: \u201cMost criminologists and youth experts agree that unprovoked attacks by teenagers on strangers are a real, if extremely rare, phenomenon,\u201d notes Tucker. What\u2019s more, unquestionably these attacks are horrid and inhumane, Mark Steyn is right that these perpetrators lack a basic moral fortitude, the guilty parties must be apprehended and punished, and the public should be warned about the realities of random violent crime. And we might even admit that some of these assaults<\/a>\u00a0appear to have been hate crimes. None of these claims are objectionable because we have evidence for them<\/em>.<\/p>\n
What we don\u2019t have evidence for is the claim that this \u201cgame\u201d is becoming increasingly popular or that it is part of a larger problem of black mob violence which the media is ignoring. To support such absurd claims we need to turn elsewhere, away from the experts and the data, to a man who has made a name for himself peddling a book which purports to show that a covert race war is being waged by blacks against whites all across the country, and the knockout game is just one weapon in their arsenal.<\/p>\n
Colin Flaherty<\/h4>\n
Image: Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n B<\/strong>efore almost anyone else was talking about the \u201cknockout game,\u201d Colin Flaherty was reporting on it and other incidences of what he calls \u201cblack mob violence\u201d for WorldNetDaily, the notoriously deceptive, far-right news and opinions site. His schtick is simple: every time he finds a report of black \u201cmob\u201d violence or black on white violence, he writes about it. He\u2019s compiled many of these incidences into his book,\u00a0White Girl Bleed A Lot<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>which is ranked #1,455 under \u201cBooks\u201d at Amazon as of Sunday evening, 24th of November. Its high ranking is undoubtedly due to the press he\u2019s been getting. Hannity had him on his radio show<\/a>. And Thomas Sowell\u2019s article on the knockout game, which was published in the New York Post<\/a> and the National Review Online<\/a>, cites Flaherty and repeats much of the WND author\u2019s rhetoric about the national epidemic of racial violence that the media has covered up. This isn\u2019t too surprising, since Sowell\u2019s\u00a0original review of the book was actually published on the NRO\u2019s website<\/a>, where he gave the book high praise.\u00a0His book has also received praise from Allen West, David Horowitz, and American Thinker.<\/p>\n
Rumors of this trend have inspired many self-defense fantasies, which are troubling in the way they celebrate violence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n What\u2019s surprising about all the positive press Flaherty has received is that his articles purporting to prove this epidemic of black racial violence are incredibly, basically absurd. And that absurdity, the lengths Flaherty is willing to go to support his assertion about the secret race war can really only be interpreted as bigotry. Flaherty deceives his readers to sell his book, peddling the classic white fear of the savage, violent, black man, mixed in with a little contemporary rhetoric about how the \u201cliberal,\u201d politically correct media is covering up for black thugs. This narrative fits nicely into the larger perception that Obama has created a nation of entitled, lazy, and violent blacks, which I have written about before<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Image: Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The most basic flaw in his argument is that his entire project is one big stacked evidence fallacy. If you only cite examples of black crime, of course you\u2019ll conclude that there\u2019s a national racial crime wave! Using that \u201clogic\u201d I can prove that any group is waging a secret race war (it is interesting to note that Robert Spencer of JihadWatch uses a very similar method<\/a>\u00a0to argue that Muslims are dangerous). On top of that egregious error, Flaherty entirely ignores all other characteristics of the crimes: social class, education, setting; nothing else matters except race to him. Any respectable criminologist would scoff at such a methodology, not because they want to be politically correct, but because it\u2019s a gross reduction of the factors that actually<\/em> contribute to crime. Next, Flaherty fails to recognize that correlation does not equal causation. So, because a black person commits a violent crime, his blackness must<\/em> have caused it, in Flaherty\u2019s logic. And because a black party got out of hand, it\u2019s a \u201crace riot.\u201d<\/a> Yes, that\u2019s right, because the partiers were black, it was a \u201crace\u201d riot. Because \u201cblack\u201d is a race. Makes perfect sense, right?<\/p>\n
When the media doesn\u2019t mention that a violent crime was committed by a black person, that\u2019s evidence of a cover up for Flaherty. In one article<\/a>, he describes calling and emailing the police to try to learn the racial makeup of a party that turned into a \u201cmob\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened? Was this a case of black mob violence?\u201d<\/p>\n
No reply. I get that a lot. It is a red flag.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, he called the police and explicitly asked if an incident was \u201cblack mob violence,\u201d and when he got no reply, it was confirmation to him that the police were hiding the truth. My guess is that in most of these cases, the media and police are silent about the race of the perpetrators because \u201crace\u201d isn\u2019t really a factor in the crimes.<\/p>\n
Flaherty regularly stacks and exaggerates the evidence (also see\u00a0here<\/a>, or\u00a0here<\/a>, or\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n
Another self-defense fantasy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Colin Flaherty and his project have been cited repeatedly to support the claim that the \u201cknockout game\u201d is really about racial violence against whites. \u00a0He\u2019s been cited to this end not just in far-right publications like WND, or FrontPageMag, but in the National Review Online, one of the most respected conservative journals, and one that I like to recommend. His conspiracy is extremely racist, as Flaherty reduces everything down to the color of the criminal\u2019s skin, regardless of the facts. He consistently distorts the truth in order to portray black people as the savage, animalistic, and Other.<\/p>\n
W<\/strong>e need to be honest and accurate about these crimes, neither sharing the hysteria and racial fear-mongering nor trivializing the reality of these crimes. This isn\u2019t easy to balance. We have the right to be concerned about random violence and the authorities have the responsibility to protect us and prosecute violent criminals. But we also have the responsibility to tell the truth about our neighbor and the world.<\/p>\n
Further resources:<\/em><\/p>\n
For more on this \u201ctrend,\u201d I highly recommend John H. Tucker\u2019s longform piece<\/a> from 2011 and this interview with Dr. Jeffrey A. Butts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Nobody seems to have any evidence that it’s spreading, or that it’s new, or that it’s racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":42198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-general-culture","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Nobody seems to have any evidence that it's spreading, or that it's new, or that it's racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Nobody seems to have any evidence that it's spreading, or that it's new, or that it's racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-25T14:38:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-27T15:33:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/280\/2013\/11\/Black-Mob.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"428\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Noble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Noble\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/\",\"name\":\"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-25T14:38:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-27T15:33:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Nobody seems to have any evidence that it's spreading, or that it's new, or that it's racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d\",\"name\":\"Alan Noble\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alan Noble\"},\"description\":\"(Co-Founder\/Editor\/Columnist) is a part-time lecturer at Baylor University. He received his PhD in Contemporary American Literature from Baylor, writing on manifestations of transcendence in 20th Century American Lit. He and his family attend Redeemer Waco, a PCA church. Alan's passion is studying how believers can be a faithful presence in culture to the glory of God and the edification of others. In addition to editing, Alan writes his column, Citizenship Confusion for CaPC. ---Follow Alan on Twitter\u00a0@TheAlanNoble and on Facebook. ---For questions, comments, or interest in speaking engagements please email me at noble.noneuclidean [at] gmail [dot] com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thealannoble\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/anoble\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots","description":"\"Nobody seems to have any evidence that it's spreading, or that it's new, or that it's racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots","og_description":"\"Nobody seems to have any evidence that it's spreading, or that it's new, or that it's racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/","og_site_name":"Christ and Pop Culture","article_published_time":"2013-11-25T14:38:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-11-27T15:33:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"650","height":"428","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/280\/2013\/11\/Black-Mob.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alan Noble","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alan Noble","Est. reading time":"11 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/","name":"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-11-25T14:38:44+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-27T15:33:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d"},"description":"\"Nobody seems to have any evidence that it's spreading, or that it's new, or that it's racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/11\/the-knockout-game-myth-and-its-racist-roots\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/","name":"Christ and Pop Culture","description":"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d","name":"Alan Noble","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alan Noble"},"description":"(Co-Founder\/Editor\/Columnist) is a part-time lecturer at Baylor University. He received his PhD in Contemporary American Literature from Baylor, writing on manifestations of transcendence in 20th Century American Lit. He and his family attend Redeemer Waco, a PCA church. Alan's passion is studying how believers can be a faithful presence in culture to the glory of God and the edification of others. In addition to editing, Alan writes his column, Citizenship Confusion for CaPC. ---Follow Alan on Twitter\u00a0@TheAlanNoble and on Facebook. ---For questions, comments, or interest in speaking engagements please email me at noble.noneuclidean [at] gmail [dot] com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/twitter.com\/thealannoble"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/anoble\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}