That Tumblr death note poll having over half of voters say they would use it to purge their political enemies puts so much of this site into context. Almost nobody here is progressive you're all just aspiring inquisitors and tchekists looking to purge the world of the unholy through fire and sword. The only guiding moral principles on this site are that might makes right and that the strong should do as they please while the weak suffer what they must. It genuinely contextualizes all of the awful behaviors that are accepted as normal here.
You know, there's something else interesting and insidious revealed by this.
Imagine the most horrific, harmful person you can. I'm going to go with Elon Musk, who somehow manages to get worse every time he breathes. Billions of lives hang on this man's every whim and he treats it like a game.
So let's do a thought experiment. Please set a timer for three minutes before you continue to read.
Your most horrible person is in front of you. You can hear a car go by; the wind blows. Somewhere a bird chirps. It's not too hot out, just warm and breezy. You can smell somebody grilling dinner somewhere. The sun is that syrupy late-afternoon light. There's a radio playing a block down and a couple of kids laughing, but where you are, the street is empty.
You can kill this person. Right here, right now. Nobody will stop you. You may be pursued, but you will not be caught. The only catch is this: you have to do it with your bare hands. Put them around this person's throat, feel the flesh give. Watch them slowly turn red, then blue, then purple. See their tongue swell and protrude, their eyes bulge, their mouth foam. Watch a trickle of blood from their nose or a corner of their eye. Listen to their last gurgling breaths as they wheeze, then choke off entirely. Watch them flail, then sink to their knees, then crumple. Maybe they beg. Maybe they call for a parent or loved one, voice trailing off to a whisper and then a croak. You have to see the fear in their eyes, watch it slowly fade into confusion as asphyxia sets in and then see the light die as they become not-a-person and turn into just-a-body. You have to feel their pulse turn rapid and frantic under your fingers, trying desperately to race oxygen to a brain that can't receive it.
Go look at your timer.
The time left is how much longer you have until the person you're strangling falls unconscious.
They're not dead yet. You have to keep going. Depending on your hand strength, this could take up to an hour.
How do you feel right now? Uncomfortable? Uneasy? A little nauseous? I read a lot of mysteries and listen to a lot of true crime at work, and this was not an easy post for me to write. If you don't have that kind of tolerance built up to hearing graphic descriptions of violence it's probably worse. Sorry.
If this sounds totally okay to you, even on a "well, if it was so-and-so" basis, you need to seek psychiatric help, because what I just narrated to you is a composite of various serial killer descriptions of their own kills during their psychological evaluations.
But if you're sitting here going "Jesus fuck, you think I'm some kind of psycho?!" then let's move on to the next part of this experiment. No more gory descriptions, I promise.
No, this one is easy.
You have the ability to kill this person, this horrible person, with the stroke of a pen. You never have to look them in the eyes. You don't have to watch them die. Everything I described above will still happen, of course. You just won't be there.
Will you do it?
If your answer is yes, you still need psychiatric help. Because the normal amount of being willing to kill someone, outside of last-resort self defense, IS ZERO. Soldiers literally have to be trained to overcome that.
If you think sounding like a serial killer is a good idea, something is really fucking wrong with you. Period.
