Why are MAPs so (too) peaceful?

[OnionPetal]

I'm also surprised that there aren't more relatives and loved ones willing to stand up.

This is a good point. Loved ones of unjustly treated MAPs have pretty much nothing to lose themselves. But instead of defending the character of their loved one or calling out the injustice, more often they act ashamed. I think it's because they know people will misunderstand the severity of the charge, and think that the person was a violent rapist who is a continued danger to children (thanks to society equating pictures with violence). There is also a stigma of shame like having to wear a scarlet letter for the rest of one's life. That stigma needs to be broken. Perhaps relatives/loved ones can be part of that breaking of the stigma. It will be hard, because in supporting their loved ones, they will be smeared as also supporting the most violent sex crimes.

[...] if my son were imprisoned for several years for some telepathic crime like looking at pictures and videos [...]

I love this term 'telepathic crime' to describe looking at pictures. We should use this term more often.

[CantChainTheSpirit]

I do wonder if the world is different today to how it was when it comes to free speech and activism.

I mean in the past, it was hard to fight back for groups that were targeted by extreme prejudice. Black people, gay people, women, these are all groups that were targeted in the past and they fought back, over time to win some respect.

Maps are one of the fuew communities tha tremain victims of extreme prejudice and are now looking to fight back, but the world is different. In the past there was no Internet, the fight was more local. Today the fight is different, it's global and online with levels of hate not experienced before. Even expressing an opinion is enough to be targeted.

I think the tools available for extremists are greater today in the past and that leads to higher levels of fear and people running to ground rather than fighting back. But those same tools can serve us to, if we choose to use them.I think the fight against us is stronger than what those other communities faced, but the tools we can emply are stronger. Honestly I think all we're lacking is organisation.

We could bring together funds, expertise and peopl to make a difference, if there was a call from someone. If there was a respected group of maps that called for help, I'd go to assist, I think others would to. All it takes is for a group to form with some authority to call for help, and people would come and do great things.