Elijah Heacock, 16, of Glasgow, Kentucky, wasn’t a man. He was a coward and a loser. He recently committed suicide in his home because he was threatened through a text message with the release of an AI-generated photograph of him nude. Of course, whomever sent the message and whomever created the image, committed a crime as Heacock was obviously a minor.
But Heacock should have stood tall against the situation. That simple task was not accomplished because he grabbed a gun and blew his head off in his family’s laundry room. As I said, what a coward! Surely the release of such an image, while disgusting, would not be enough to cause him to splatter his brains around the washing machine!
Heacock was apparently being financially extorted. Clearly, what did happen shouldn’t have happened, but there was never a need to commit suicide over that! And yes, as previously stated, what happened was illegal, not to mention unethical and downright cruel.
But a strong person girds up their loins and handles it. Heacock was not a strong person.
In all seriousness, what would possess someone to kill themselves over something that would have likely never happened? After all, he was threatened. That’s it. Voluntarily surrendering his life because of an empty threat showed what a weak and worthless human being he was. Even if it did end up becoming a reality, suicide was not the correct response.
Apparently, Heacock wasn’t the only coward. Many other teens have killed themselves over similar threats. None of them would have survived in the real world. In today’s world, teenagers are snowflakes who can’t handle a little simple adversity. One little thing that doesn’t cut their way and they have a meltdown.
As you can imagine, when it comes to situations such as this, many people are out for blood. There are efforts in place to make creating sexually-oriented AI images of minors or others who didn’t consent a federal crime. I agree. That’s why the finest president whom our nation has ever known, even President Donald Trump, signed the backronym-rich Take It Down Act.
There can be no tolerance for so-called “revenge porn,” or extortion porn, whether the victim is a minor or an adult, but especially when the victim is underage. However, putting a gun in one’s mouth and splashing brain matter all over the place is not the answer.
Too bad this loser didn’t get that memo!