Prominent MAP activist Katie Cruz has been all over TikTok and YouTube recently. One of her main detractors is the failed singer-songwriter Sly Boy, a shriveled disappointment of a man who is desperately trying to build a career as a hateful YouTuber. I am certainly no fan of such inherently trashy content, and only became aware of it due to a spurious link between the Cruz debacle and attacks on the Mu Forum that I help to manage. Now, having had the distinct displeasure of going through Sly Boy's video posting history, I'll explain why he is a massive bully with violent inclinations, not to mention a misogynist and transphobe. I'll also take a look at why MAPness should indeed be celebrated, and why Cruz's warning to those seeking to harm her was very much necessary.

Due to the threats made by Sly Boy, and his apparent propensity for violence, I will not link to any videos that engage in attempted doxxing.

Katie Cruz

Katie Cruz is a respected member of the MAP community, involved with a variety of projects. And incidentally, her projects so far have not been for me. She is very vanilla, keen on ensuring that everyone is happy and united, avoidant of drama over thorny issues like contact stances. I'm not like that at all. I revel in the energy of the debate, and I actively post my articles on boards where I know they will not be well-received. So, as much as I respect Cruz and have supported the possibility of her working with us on a rebranding of Mu's forum, I am very much not one of her devoted minions. And given her rather tame character - she is one of the kindest but arguably one of the most 'boring' community leaders out there - it is ironic that Cruz has been the subject of such pure revile. Why her?

Cruz and Riada

The social media lynching of Cruz apparently started in 2023, when a TikTok influencer by the name of Riada took it upon herself to launch a crusade. I know very little about Riada, and don't care to go down the rabbit hole. But from what I do know, she has been through a lot of trauma. That is horrible for sure, although the same could be said for any person who has grown up as a MAP. And while I'm not going to make light of her experiences nor deny what she had to deal with, the way that she uses her emotions to push agendas and gain a following feels somewhat ingenuine to me, personally. Her whole persona just seems so curated.

With the help of her followers, Riada was allegedly able to track down Cruz, as well as a child named 'Lucy' with whom Cruz was apparently infatuated. She contacted the child's parents, who were freaked out by Cruz's online comments and applied for a protection order. This was denied by the judge.

Sly Boy and MAP Camp

Sly Boy's first foray into the world of anti-MAP lynch mobbing was titled The Predator Convention of VT, in reference to the now infamous MAP Camp originally planned for Vermont. For those who don't know, meetups like these happen all the time; the only difference was that this one had a website. The lesson to be learned, I guess, is that MAP meetings need to be held in greater secrecy. I thought they wanted to know who we are?

Sly Boy wasted no time in showing his true colors in his first video on MAP issues. Not even two minutes into the video, he informs viewers that he likes making content where he "just light-heartedly bullies people", noting that "this is a little less light-hearted". Barely five minutes through, he suggests that MAPs can be made unattracted to children, naturally without providing any evidence. He quips that "there are many medications for pedophiles", stating "I happen to have one right here". He then proceeds to recklessly wave a gun around in front of the camera. A few minutes after endorsing the wholesale shooting of MAPs, he argues that MAPs would only need to be worried about being outed if they'd committed a crime.

The failed entertainer goes on to present a variety of public articles on alleged MAP Camp organizer MytheBe and their friend Jacqueline, a female owner of the campground at which MAP Camp was supposedly scheduled to be held. He makes fun of MytheBe's preferred pronouns by slapping a silly computerized they voice-over on top of references to 'he' or 'him'. Criticism of MytheBe and Jacqueline revolves around the tired old insinuations that MytheBe is dangerous, when no evidence of such is ever presented. Research eventually leads to MEDAL and Katie Cruz, with whom this presenter eventually will soon proceed to develop quite the obsession. At around 38 minutes into the video, Sly Boy reads a blog entry by Cruz, then bounces up and down on his seat excitedly and shouts "Oh, I'm gonna fucking kill [implied Katie Cruz]!. Shortly after, the words "you will die" are seen written on his hand while he strokes his cat. The cat, by the way, is adorable. Poor thing.

In his second video about MAP issues, titled The MAP Camp Predators, our friend presents evidence that Jacqueline supported MytheBe as a non-offending MAP. She, and MytheBe's other friends, are clearly open-minded people but not in any way supportive of AMSC (Adult-Minor Sexual Contact). As the title may suggest, subjects of discussion in this video are all labeled predators, even with no evidence of them having ever preyed on anyone. Sly Boy really clutches at straws to present MytheBe as supportive of literal rape, makes fun of them for having become unhoused ("boo-fucking-hoo"), and implies that their housing must have been charity housing because of the way they look and act. At the end of the video, Sly Boy more or less threatens MytheBe and Jacqueline, stating "I'll be watchin' ya" with a wink.

Sly Boy's fledgling Cruz crush

The first video about Cruz was titled Katie Cruz: The Christian Pedophile Influencer. It connects her to a supposed real-life person whose name I won't be repeating on my blog, relying mostly on the aforementioned Riada's videos for evidence. It shows a screenshot of a website displaying a picture of Cruz's alleged house, made very easy for viewers to locate (and in fact, one viewer joked about having found her house on Sly Boy's channel). The presenter repeatedly goads Cruz to kill herself, and states that members of the MAP community should be shot in the head.

The next video, How YouTube Protects Predators, was posted in response to the host taking down the first Cruz video. Sly Boy rants that he is "the good guy", and that his video was no different to Chris Hansen videos or "other videos on YouTube exposing online predators". A key difference, of course, is that these other videos target those supposedly meeting underage people for sex. And while I don't support the wholesale criminalization of consensual AMSC, there is a very clear difference in that adults meeting underage people for sex are committing crimes, while there is no evidence of Cruz ever having done such. Sly Boy describes Cruz's allies as child abusers, "degenerate scum", and other niceties, even though many of them are notably anti-contact. Bizarrely, he also describes himself as "better-looking" than Cruz, which is an amusing statement from a man with a deformed nose, an ironic 'pedostache', and a wild bush of pubes for hair.

The next video has been deleted by YouTube from Sly Boy's channel for good reason, and as such I will not be mentioning its title. Re-uploaded to other channels, it starts with the host dressing up as an FBI agent, and quickly introducing a life-size image of someone who is alleged to be Cruz. He goes on to rehash some of his old content about her, before explaining that he needs a "silver bullet, some sort of mutually assured destruction". In a stroke of pure genius, he threatens that if his latest video is reported, he will take the life-size image to Cruz's town and tell everyone that she's a pedophile who (strongly implied and false) assaulted a 10 year old. He does this while standing next to a decorative clock case prominently displaying an assault rifle that is situated halfway between himself and the image of Cruz.

Later in the deleted video, Sly Boy looks at the life-size image, and screams at her that she is a "stupid, fat bitch", his assault rifle still very clearly displayed. Not long after, he proceeds to criticize Cruz's anti-contact friends, whom he refers to as "the diddler squad"; he claims they sent "hateful" messages to a woman who doxxed her. Toward the end, Sly Boy again shows viewers how to find Cruz's alleged house, then expresses pretend concern about how easy it is to find. He blurs out the picture of her house, on the very page that he shows viewers how to locate, stating that he doesn't want anyone to go and shoot her. But he quite obviously is sending people after her. Immediately following this, he repeats his threat of going to her town to "expose" her, and he concludes by stating that Jesus wants her dead.

In his next video, titled The Person in This Thumbnail Is Planning to Murder Me, Sly Boy contends that Cruz is planning to murder him. Why does he say that? Well, under the now-deleted video, a commenter warns him that he'd better be armed when he goes to her town, and he mentions that he's "always strapped". In other words, he is advertising the fact that he's planning to show up to Cruz's town armed. In direct response, Cruz replies:

Is this a road you really wanna go down? It might be one that neither of us come back from. I'm sick and dying, I don't have much to lose. If you kill me, you're doing me a favor. But it looks like you have a whole lot more to lose. If I die a little sooner than I originally was going to, such is life, I'm at peace with that. But are you at peace with it? I won't capitulate to bullies. I don't negotiate with terrorists. I won't back down. God bless, and Godspeed.

Sly Boy frames it as, "this person is openly saying that if I show up to [her alleged town] to exercise my free speech rights, she's going to try to kill me". He decides that, for the time being at least, perhaps going to her town to start a war may not be the best idea.

In the next video, Free Sly Boy, the YouTuber paints himself as a victim of death threat, talks about having to "clout chase for [his] protection", and so on.

A short video on Connor Weston and the Wikipedia drama serves as an interlude to the Cruz debacle. In this video, Sly Boy more or less states that he hopes MAPs will kill themselves. He claims that non-offenders are just liars, or simply haven't offended yet. He talks about how how he enjoys bullying public figures, describing it as fun.

Finally - at the time of drafting this article, at least - Sly Boy presents a 'victim'. That is, someone who at the age of 14, spent time with 20-year-old Cruz. In this video, the now-adult woman describes Cruz expressing a desire to date her, but adds that her request to be just friends was respected. Attempts at non-sexual affection were also rejected, and that rejection too was accepted. A trip to a concert was subject to constraints set by the younger person's parents, and these were... respected. The younger person states that Cruz's conversation was sometimes inappropriate, but no physical boundaries were ever crossed, and she was not harmed by Cruz in any way. It is mentioned that at the time, Cruz was 'conservative' (actually Libertarian), as opposed to the arguably 'woke' beliefs that she presently espouses. The implication is that her modern liberalism is somehow ingenuine.

Hot take: Sly Boy is a nasty little bully

I have, in telling this story, tried my best to largely refrain from expressing my judgment on Sly Boy, minus a few irresistible snips here and there. That's not because I intend for this to be a piece devoid of judgment, but because I wanted to lay the facts down first. Now that the facts are neatly laid out on the table, let's get to why Sly Boy is an absolutely massive asshole.

His targets are vulnerable people

Sly Boy is clearly aware of the pro-choice MAP community, as he references us several times in his videos. However, the people he chooses to attack are MAPs who are not confident enough to challenge the common narrative that AMSC is inherently wrong, or at the very least unwilling to do so. Moreover, his targets are either trans women like Cruz, effeminate non-binary people such as MytheBe, or cisgender women like Jacqueline. They are also people whose personal information is easy to track down online; those who can be publicly lynched and threatened most effectively.

There are a plethora of pro-choice MAPs associated with Newgon, as well as a fairly radical and largely pro-choice community on Mu Forum. As one of the more radical and aggressive voices, I have personally stated that I'm willing to help other MAPs find ways to spend time with children, as long as they suggest no criminal intent. However, Sly Boy is seemingly not interested in taking on the aggressive, cisgender male MAPs like us. As is the case with most bullies, he targets the weakest (MAPs) he can find. The way he makes fun of MytheBe's preferred pronouns, independent of their sexual orientation, shows that he is a grossly intolerant and disgusting person in general. We're talking about the kind of guy who would dress up in blackface and use the n-word to get attention if he had a good enough excuse.

Inevitably, non-MAP readers of this blog will accuse MAPs of doing the same, of "targeting children because they're the most vulnerable". Quite the conflation of situational offenders and actual MAPs, this is preposterously incorrect. In fact, MAPs are generally youth rights advocates who would like to see the subjects of their attraction placed on an equal footing, a pedestal even, the emotional and romantic aspects of the MAP orientation being arguably more important than the sexual component.

Insults and slurs

Sly Boy's use of language is that of a narcissistic bully. He refers to members of anti-contact communities using a variety of silly and grossly inaccurate slurs, implying that they're all rapists when most are actually going above and beyond to ensure they don't engage in criminalized conduct. He clearly enjoys putting people down to feel better about himself, and again, the weaker the better. Placing fart noises over the word 'pedophile' in his videos really drives the point home.

A violent man playing the victim

The wildest part of all of this, however, is the way that the pathetic bully paints himself as an innocent victim of a death threat.

Sly Boy has blatantly threatened to murder Cruz, stated that he's actively planning to go to her town with a gun, goaded her to just kill herself, waved a pistol around on camera claiming it's a 'cure' for pedophilia, and stated that all MAPs should be shot in the head. He's also made it very clear that he knows exactly where she lives, and has shown others how to find her house, too.

Cruz's so-called 'death threat' to Sly Boy was, frankly, absolutely necessary to protect herself from being attacked by a miserable failure of a musician who is seeking to take his frustrations out on the weakest-looking target he can find. In a stand-your-ground state, she has every right to make such statements, and also to act on them if she reasonably believes her life is in danger.

There is a long history of registered sex offenders being murdered at home, and the public (Sly Boy very much included) treat sex offenders and non-offending MAPs as one and the same. These attacks happen because the targets are unable or unwilling to defend themselves. We need more MAPs standing up for themselves to the fullest extent of the law, and that includes exercising stand-your-ground rights when applicable.

Chasing views

Of course, beyond being a thoroughly nasty individual, Sly Boy is also chasing views. His commentary videos prior to his MAP Camp coverage received an average of 1000-2000 views, with a few outliers. His review of an album from a year ago sits at a grand total of 478, and his own music videos have a thousand or less hits. Embarrassing. Attacking trans MAPs and their female allies has really helped him get his numbers up, after a series of attempted hate videos and random nonsense that ultimately went nowhere.

Sly Boy is not alone in this. Attacking MAPs has been used as currency by numerous other 'influencers', most notoriously in 'predator hunter' videos that are getting increasingly more extreme and violent. It was also how feminists kickstarted their fledgling movement all the way back in the late 19th and early 20th century. And of course, modern politicians, journalists, and profiteering pseudo-charities do it constantly. The one thing they all have in common is that they don't really give a fuck about protecting children, just pulling themselves up by dragging others down.

A defense of MAPness, and of Cruz

MAPness is cool. We are the adults kids love to spend time with, who can really get into the rhythm of acting like a kid ourselves. We have a quite magical connection with young people, as I discussed in my recent post on why MAPs should spend more time with children. But at the same time, we're also able to be a responsible ear for those who need it, a role model who can be both fun and serious as the situation demands. As a MAP teacher myself, I think I'm pretty great at this. I advise more MAPs to get into teaching, and I'm willing to help.

MAPness is, ultimately, not a harmful or dangerous sexual orientation. The "but what if they make a mistake?" argument equally applies to straight men around women who might not give consent to sex with them. Furthermore, outcomes of consensual adult-minor sexual relationships are far from black-and-white, and much of any harm is likely derived from the hysteria surrounding such relationships, rather than the relationships themselves. The idea that MAPs are ticking time bombs who need to stay the hell away from children is just silly.

As for Cruz's blog posts, I don't see why they necessitate such drama. She is clearly overly infatuated with a child in a way that is never going to be reciprocated as it once was, but that is a cause for sympathy and perhaps pity, not scorn. She shows no indication of crossing any lines, and she accepts the boundaries foist upon her. The court was right in determining that she did not present a danger to 'Lucy'. Online detractors don't like the blog content because it makes them feel 'icky', but that really falls within the scope of mind your own damn business. If nobody is being harmed, leave everyone alone.

The 'victim' video portrayed Cruz as a pretty responsible MAP, despite its malevolent intentions. Cruz fully respected all boundaries, the need for consent, and showed herself to be a thoroughly decent person. The now-adult former young friend of Cruz states that she wasn't harmed in any way, despite clearly having been a romantic interest. Indeed, Cruz was the role model that all MAPs should aspire to be. And the suggestion that libertarian and liberal inclinations are polar opposites is quite absurd; the latter is merely a modern version of the former, albeit an inferior one.

Likewise, I see no justification for criticizing the video takedowns. If someone was actively threatening to murder Sly Boy, and nudging others to consider it while teaching them how to find his house, I bet he'd want the videos removed, not to mention a police investigation. Cruz merely wants to live a normal life, while not feeling like a piece of shit over what is a pretty cool sexual orientation that others dump on for their own cynical ends.

And to conclude...

The MAP Camp of 2024 did ultimately go ahead, albeit not at the location everyone expected. What a waste of resources in sending Homeland Security to that town and school! Meetings like these happen fairly often, but they need to happen even more frequently. They're pretty fun, and the only environment in which we can truly be ourselves.

Likewise, MAPs absolutely should spend more time with children. It's our natural calling, and all the silliness and hysteria must not be allowed to get in the way of that. Check out my previous post on the topic, the guide I posted on Mu Forum, or contact me if you need help (noting that I will not help you do anything criminalized).

And Sly Boy, if you're reading this, how about coming after an aggressive pro-choice man like me this time, instead of essentially beating on women?