I've already thought about all the names of specific leaders and billionaires I'd write down in that book, close it up and go to sleep with a smile on my face.

Killing is the morally correct thing to do in acts of self defense

Billionaires, just by hoarding the wealth that they have and using it to run this system, are an everyday threat to the lives of the most vulnerable people in society

They are above the law. Nothing will happen to them if I don't do something. That's who I would go for without hesitation

None of that ego bullshit, no Kira nonsense. Just do what has to be done in whatever accidental or coincidental method

I mean if I had a magic gun that, when fired, put a bullet into the brain of every trump supporter, I'd empty the clip.

So... yeah, I'd use the death note.

plus on billionaires. hoarding ill-gotten capital while buying politicians to ensure you remain at the top is violence. Dismantling institutions for the poor, crafting an america with income inequality at it's worse since the great depression, 70,000 americans die every year due to lack of access to health care. That is violence, perpetrated against us all, by republicans, and by corporate capitalists. They let you rot and melingure in poverty, dying in shame for having nothing, that's akin to torture. A swift death via death note is almost too kind for them.

I would use it. But I wouldn't use it against regular people who are in jail, they are serving their time for their actions.

I would use it against those who have the resources to avoid jail time.

I know of some powerful people I would want to write the name of. I’m not sure if it will end the wars and suffering they’ve caused, but I believe the world would be a better place without them.

I would absolutely use it. Billionaires, war criminals, fascists, they'd all be targets.

Once handed the death note, I'd give it a test run on a singular target, with very specific means of death. Just to make sure I'm not wasting my time.

Once it's confirmed as functional, I'd set a date roughly six months in advance. Then I'd hop on Tor and do fuck loads of research for about 5 months, setting the date of death for those billionaires, war criminals, fascists, all for the same day. I'd try to make sure it's a global thing, not just centered within "western" countries.

The world would go into a bit of a panick, as fuck loads of very powerful people would overnight be gone. The status quo of the world wouldn't change too much I wouldn't think, but the rich and powerful would have a wake up call. Some of them would be missed, some of them would have estates going to children. I wouldn't target minors, but adult children who retain that lovecraftian wealth would themselves become targets for round two.

Round two would be significantly harder to implement. The rich and powerful that slipped through the cracks in the first round would be taking big steps to hide their presence. The research to find these traitors of humanity would get significantly harder. But just as before I'd set a date about 6 months out, and do 5 months of adding names with the date.

I'd like to hope that the second round would be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and gets the currently rising tide of fascism to stop, wealth to become unwanted, etc. It will have hopefully established a pattern which makes those with the opportunity to become billionaires, war criminals, or prominent fascists to not go down that path.

Twice a year every year the process would continue, and every year it would get harder and harder to discover targets. But I think it would be the safest way for an individual to use the death note to move the world to the right track.

From a strict utilitarian perspective, it's easy to look at this as a trolley problem. I can easily think of a few monsters at the very top whose deaths would definitely save far more lives in exchange.

But the harder question I'd struggle with is, where to stop? I can start with the most obvious targets and feel no remorse, but how long do I keep going down the list for? What would really keep me up at night is wondering what's worse: using it too much or not using it enough?

Oh yes, I'd probably end up with carpal tunnel syndrome from using it too much. Politicians, billionaires, CEOs, celebrities and that guys that parks his huge ass truck in a way that the hood is intruding on the sidewalk.

Also I'd try to do it in funny ways while they are on live-TV when possible, like the priest that got hit by the falling cross.

why stop with bad people?

I usually go with:

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.

-- Gandalf when asked about killing Gollum

That thing would be full in like, a few hours

I'd make Thanos look like a pacifist.

If you asked me this years ago I would have said no. Today though it would seem like such an opportunity to mitigate the effects of climate change and pollution and greed.

I'd write down every wealthy persons name I could find

I'd simply write 1 entry:

• Every billionaire. Spontaneous combustion.

No. I'm against death penalty and I extend that to also apply to the people I don't like.

I'm not even going to read the other responses but I'll make an educated guess that this is a minority view here.

Feel like I could just get away with killing people who are like clinically brain dead and can't be allowed to die due to religious or legal reasons.

I can barely be trusted with that, but I feel like that's a limit I could stick to and spend the rest of my time just making sure the book doesn't get into the wrong hands.

There's still moral implications to being an angel of death and it could go wrong really easily but it feels much less tricky than deciding some dude fits my personal criteria of evil and thus deserves death.

I have thought about if I had a Death Note and the one thing that I would be deeply fascinated by is if it could cause things like people suddenly having Song of Saya style meat vision. If it could do things like that, then I'd probably be a little sadistic by making a few billionaires become "cursed" as a warning from "God" to get rid of their greed by getting rid of their wealth. That's also presuming I would be also allowed to basically plant voices in their heads as well.

I have no idea what I would do, but I know it would destroy me, either from guilt due to inaction or guilt due to action.

killing the top 1% wealthiest would solve like 99% of issues

I feel like I would kind of have to, the potential upside is just way too big

Yes.

However, in the long run the DeathNote would make me a corrupt PoS. I genuinely believe no one should have such power (DeathNote, Geass, Makima’s Control etc).