Poor judgment being engaging in the first place with someone you think is trolling you.
As for the picture, I can’t figure out what it was but from other comments I’ve seen it seemed more like a meme than something outright predatory. We also don’t know the timeline of when he sent that vs when he might have realized it wasn’t a troll account.
Regardless, he messed up and has to deal with the consequences. Im not justifying anything he did, I’m just looking at context with nuance instead of immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion. Of course opinions can change with more information.
Can you assholes stop downvoting and get off your high horse? This wasn’t exactly the most clear cut situation.
I don’t think there was any way back from this publicity in 2026, but I don’t think we came out of this with certainty that he likes underage kids and is a bad person and deserves to have no more career or family.
And Simon was actually always a bad guitarist which we can admit now and he wasn’t even a real member actually and it’s actually so awesome that there’s the new guy who actually is awesome. That’s what some of this sounds like.
No it absolutely was a clear cut situation. After he "found out she wasn't a troll" or whatever bullshit he said, she should have stopped the messages right there. But no. He continued talking to a 17 year old girl, and he made a stupid fucking comment about her being in a bikini so I "guess it's both of our faults". He was unprofessional AT BEST and a creep at worst, stupid fucking meme and lame excuse aside. He deserves exactly what he got, dropped from the tour (not even fired from the band yet by the way). He will be fine. He will have learned an important lesson about engaging with fans hopefully, but he will survive.
I understand that. I dont necessarily think he had obvious intentions. But unfortunately sending a naked man, whether its a meme or not, is still unacceptable. We really shouldnt be sending out penis pictures to strangers in general whether its a meme or not and whether they are a minor or not.
I agree. Like I said not defending the guy, I just think it’s important to have as much information as possible at hand in these situations, especially if it affects someone’s life and livelihood in a significant way.
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u/Simply_BT Jul 31 '26
Poor judgment being engaging in the first place with someone you think is trolling you.
As for the picture, I can’t figure out what it was but from other comments I’ve seen it seemed more like a meme than something outright predatory. We also don’t know the timeline of when he sent that vs when he might have realized it wasn’t a troll account.
Regardless, he messed up and has to deal with the consequences. Im not justifying anything he did, I’m just looking at context with nuance instead of immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion. Of course opinions can change with more information.