Poll of the Day > If you had a Death Note that could only kill black people

(+) Yeah! (+)

Would using it be racist?

Conversely, if you had a Death Note that could only kill white people, would using that be racist?

I'm imagining a Light type situation where you're trying to improve the world, but if y'all are more fucked up than that feel free to integrate that into the question.

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Well, sounds like the book (or maker) would be racist Using it would depend
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It really depends how you use it I guess. If you go around throwing random people in it for shits n giggles then you are probably racist

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is this a euphemism for a certain profession

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Kotenks posted...

Yes

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You're imagining a scenario to try to improve the world with a book that only kills black people... What is wrong with you.

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Most of the evil people in power are white, so i'd go for the only white person book.

That being said, there are very evil dark skinned people as well, so in either case the book could be used for good.

As far as whoever created the book, yeah they are probably racist.

Just because something was made by a racist though, doesn't mean it can't be used for good.

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Fuckin racist shinigami

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Yes

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__starsnostars posted...

You're imagining a scenario to try to improve the world with a book that only kills black people... What is wrong with you.

You can improve the world by killing certain black people (at least, working from the assumption that Light's approach wasn't wrong, since there's plenty of room to debate that but that's not the discussion at hand). Same as you can improve the world by killing certain white people, or certain Asian people, or certain people of a diverse assortment of ethnicities. It's not racist to recognize that some of the people whose deaths would improve the world happen to be black.

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I feel like the fact that you're a psychopath using a magic book to kill people completely trumps whether or not you might be a racist in the hierarchy of things that kind of make you an asshole.
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Is a racist rapist better or worse than a regular rapist

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papercup posted...

Yes

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

So you wouldn't kill Kony 2012 if you had the power?

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What about half blacks, like kimbo?

He's the first to go.

mods this is obvious satire, I wouldn't ever actually post about killing kimbo.

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EvilMegas posted...

What about half blacks, like kimbo?

The death note in this case judges race based on N word privileges

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No matter who the Note could kill, I'd probably burn that fucking book because...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE

Blightzkrieg posted...

Would using it be racist?

Conversely, if you had a Death Note that could only kill white people, would using that be racist?

I'm imagining a Light type situation where you're trying to improve the world, but if y'all are more fucked up than that feel free to integrate that into the question.

I'm pretty sure it'd be the book that'd be racist at that point, unless that was your preference all along. Either way, if you're using a book to kill people, there are already some far fucking worse problems than racism.

wolfy42 posted...

Most of the evil people in power are white, so i'd go for the only white person book.

jfc

Even if you could somehow argue that there are more white people in power than non-white people in power, that would be a flimsy excuse for a racist AF argument.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I feel like the fact that you're a psychopath using a magic book to kill people completely trumps whether or not you might be a racist in the hierarchy of things that kind of make you an asshole.

This.

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3 Hrs Later and this Topic is still up...I guess Gfaqs MAGA Mods is letting it percolate a bit...

pionear posted...

3 Hrs Later and this Topic is still up...I guess Gfaqs MAGA Mods is letting it percolate a bit...

even worse, they no longer have to respond to moderation challenges, it can just be upheld without a response. whats the point of even challenging, if theres no discussion or sending it for review, ok?

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i'd use the notebook to kill shitty drivers

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I think any Death Note used in any capacity turns the person into an evil douchebag no matter how good the original intentions are.

Monopoman posted...

I think any Death Note used in any capacity turns the person into an evil douchebag no matter how good the original intentions are.

What if it's used to bestow good fortune on somebody for the remainder of their natural life by spelling out a never-ending stream of positive events that will happen to them until they die peacefully in their sleep at the age of 120 (presumably dying for some other reason before then, since iirc you can't extend somebody's life past when they'd normally die by using the book)?

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adjl posted...

What if it's used to bestow good fortune on somebody for the remainder of their natural life by spelling out a never-ending stream of positive events that will happen to them until they die peacefully in their sleep at the age of 120 (presumably dying for some other reason before then, since iirc you can't extend somebody's life past when they'd normally die by using the book)?

I don't think the Death Note is capable of that.

It's better to never use any Death Note. It's wrong to kill people and especially in that manner where you act like a god. Nobody should have that power

But also it seems like nobody ever ends up with a happy ending with death notes. I think Ryuk implied once that people who use it are cursed. I am not talking about the no afterlife thing , I mean that in the end, everyone who uses them, end up losing out eventually

There was a sequel manga short story a couple years ago. Ryuk returns to Earth once more and hands the Death Note to a new Japanese teenager. The guy attempts to outsmart Ryuk and the rules of the Death Note. It doesn't work out too well for him. And he isn't even trying to do what Light did

How does it work, anyway? I know you can write someones name in it and they die, right? But I never really knew any of the specifics
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Monopoman posted...

I don't think the Death Note is capable of that.

It's capable of exerting pretty much complete control over somebody, provided that series of commands ultimately ends in their death. Light exploited that by writing his own name in the book to wipe his memory during one of his more elaborate schemes. The series doesn't explore it, but there's really no reason it couldn't be used for good. Heck, even within Light's idea of eliminating criminals, he could have simply used it to compel them to stop being criminals and live out the remainder of their natural lives as upstanding members of society. That's still ethically questionable because of that whole "free will" thing people seem to like so much, but it's generally a more positive outcome than murdering everyone. But Light was an arrogant teenager with a god complex, not somebody interested in minimizing collateral damage while fixing the world's problems, so he went the serial killer route.

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adjl posted...

It's capable of exerting pretty much complete control over somebody, provided that series of commands ultimately ends in their death. Light exploited that by writing his own name in the book to wipe his memory during one of his more elaborate schemes. The series doesn't explore it, but there's really no reason it couldn't be used for good. Heck, even within Light's idea of eliminating criminals, he could have simply used it to compel them to stop being criminals and live out the remainder of their natural lives as upstanding members of society. That's still ethically questionable because of that whole "free will" thing people seem to like so much, but it's generally a more positive outcome than murdering everyone. But Light was an arrogant teenager with a god complex, not somebody interested in minimizing collateral damage while fixing the world's problems, so he went the serial killer route.

I mean it's pretty obvious that Light was a complete sociopath, especially as the series progresses.

Eeyup.

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what the hell kind of topic is this?!

a great topic

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It sounds racist. Obviously I wouldn't use it - I take it straight to police.

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LinkPizza posted...

How does it work, anyway? I know you can write someones name in it and they die, right? But I never really knew any of the specifics

Just watch the anime then if you're curious. Pretty decent show...for a bit.

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No. There are criminals that are black so killing those criminals wouldnt be racist. Though then you have another problem associated with you being a murderer. Unless that person is actively killing people.
If you kill people for no reason then it still isnt racist though once again, youre a mass murderer.
NOW, if you kill random people because theyre black, thats racist.

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Lobomoon posted...

It sounds racist. Obviously I wouldn't use it - I take it straight to police.

Damn, going for the genocide route

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My first thought was cleaning up Africa.

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Lobomoon posted...

It sounds racist. Obviously I wouldn't use it - I take it straight to police.

I think some people would argue that that worse XD

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oh it would definitely be worse

it would be better to just bury it in the ground

or just chuck it into the trash and have it sent off to a landfill

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helIy posted...

oh it would definitely be worse

it would be better to just bury it in the ground

or just chuck it into the trash and have it sent off to a landfill

If it went in the trash itt might be the cliche part where the garbageman finds it and is killing everyone.

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Yea don't take it to the police. Someone will end up using it. If I found a death note I'd never use it and I'd hide it somewhere nobody would ever find it and never tell anyone about it. I'd possibly be haunted by a Shinigami the rest of my life but I'd tell them to fuck off

pionear posted...

3 Hrs Later and this Topic is still up...I guess Gfaqs MAGA Mods is letting it percolate a bit...

Shut the fuck up.

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deoxxys posted...

If it went in the trash itt might be the cliche part where the garbageman finds it and is killing everyone.

"Time to take out the trash, once and for all!"

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deoxxys posted...

If it went in the trash itt might be the cliche part where the garbageman finds it and is killing everyone

Depends on if we're talking about a narrative or reality scenario.

In fiction, hiding something where no one will ever find it almost guarantees that someone is absolutely going to find it, and it's going to be the worst possible person at the worst possible time.

In reality? It's actually fairly easy to lose a book forever. We've been doing it for millennia without even meaning to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_literary_work

The only real concern in a more realistic scenario would be just how durable a magical murder book actually is. If it's fireproof, waterproof, and generally indestructible, it would make it hard to get rid of it in an absolutely guaranteed way... but there's nothing really stopping you from encasing it in a concrete block and throwing it into the deep ocean. Or a volcano.

The only other concern if you're hiding it would be whether or not the Shinigami would just go get the book from wherever you hid it, or just magic up a new one somehow and give it to someone else because you're being boring.
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Fun fact: Gfaqs mods sympathize with warlords and support ongoing conflict in war-torn regions of the world that involve black people.

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Veedrock- posted...

Fun fact: Gfaqs mods sympathize with warlords and support ongoing conflict in war-torn regions of the world that involve black people.

Okay, racist.

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As does EM evidently.

Zikten posted...

There was a sequel manga short story a couple years ago. Ryuk returns to Earth once more and hands the Death Note to a new Japanese teenager. The guy attempts to outsmart Ryuk and the rules of the Death Note. It doesn't work out too well for him. And he isn't even trying to do what Light did

Didn't the shinigami cheat? They added the selling rule to the death note after he announced his plan. Kinda bogus if you ask me.

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Veedrock- posted...

Fun fact: Gfaqs mods sympathize with warlords and support ongoing conflict in war-torn regions of the world that involve black people.

Eh, your wording could have used some work. IIRC, you said something to the effect of "cleaning up Africa," which is really open-ended. I understood that you most likely meant dealing with some of the particularly deplorable political figures in Africa, most of whom happen to be black, but I can see why it was deleted.

Of course, even then, killing dictators and warlords tends to cause its own suite of problems because power vacuums, and killing any evil black person that took over would eventually just result in a non-black person taking over, who would likely be just as evil. I don't think that's the most feasible strategy for improving the situation.

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Well when you get rid of African dictators (internally or otherwise) they tend to be replaced with someone even worse.

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MeteoricBurst posted...

Well when you get rid of African dictators (internally or otherwise) they tend to be replaced with someone even worse.

Don't even have to use "African" in that sentence to be accurate.
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adjl posted...

Of course, even then, killing dictators and warlords tends to cause its own suite of problems because power vacuums, and killing any evil black person that took over would eventually just result in a non-black person taking over, who would likely be just as evil. I don't think that's the most feasible strategy for improving the situation.

The first draft of my post had something like "if I had Light's intelligence," but it felt too wordy and off point to the question. I know it'd take more than some anonymous assassinations to fix things, but it is something a restrictive death note could assist with.

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Indeed. It certainly wouldn't magically fix the problem, but it could help.

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