The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 23, 2025


PREVIEW： Brokenomics ｜ Political assassinations with Beau Dade

Topics
journalists killed
Hosted by
Callum Edmunds Carl Benjamin Connor Tomlinson Harry Robinson John Wheatley Joshua Ferme Edward McLaren Elizabeth Heverin
Mentioned
Franz Joseph Franz Ferdinand Putin Paul Joseph Watson Teddy Roosevelt Michael Malice Tommy Robinson Benjamin Boyce Yitzhak Rabin Charlie Kirk Anwar Sadat Lenin
The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1257 The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1259

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

178.81

Word count

2,813

Sentence count

363

Harmful content

Toxicity

28

sentences flagged

Hate speech

15

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we look at political assassinations and ask the question, did the assassinations of the past have any impact? And were the assassins goals met or did they backfire completely? We have in the studio today with us Bo, who is our chief chap of knowing about things that have happened.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to Brokonomics. Now in this episode I wanted to look at political assassinations
00:00:04.640 following the murder of Charlie Kirk and ask the question did the assassinations of past,
00:00:12.220 did they have any particular impact and were the assassins goals met or did it backfire
00:00:21.280 completely? Now of course I know a little bit about things that happened but we have in the
00:00:26.580 studio today with us Bo who is our chief chap of knowing about things that have happened.
00:00:34.180 So thank you for coming on Bo. Yeah no thank you it's always a pleasure. Oh good thank you very
00:00:39.060 much. I must do your show again quite soon. I've got a documentary to watch which I keep remembering
00:00:45.640 every time I think it and then I'm going to get back to that soon so we do something together soon.
00:00:49.400 Political assassinations. So I looked at some of the numbers and apparently the US has had
00:00:57.840 something like 3,600 political assassinations since 1975. Oh really? Yes however 83 percent of them
00:01:06.080 occurred on 9-11. Oh I was going to say that's a fantastically high number. Yes. But okay if you
00:01:12.440 count everyone that died in 9-11? Yes. All right. So it's nearly all of them then isn't it?
00:01:17.540 Uh 83 percent. Okay. Of that or whatever that is so that's most of them and then you get and then you
00:01:22.940 get um Islamic terrorism is like the next one at like 10 percent or something so. They're counting all 0.99
00:01:28.840 of those as well? Yes. Okay. If you if you strip them out I mean they happen on a regular beat but
00:01:35.460 they're fairly spaced out they're not they're not an everyday occurrence yet although as we will probably
00:01:39.960 come to the 60s and 70s were a bit lively weren't they? That's what I was going to say uh back in the
00:01:44.300 60s and 70s they were more common than they are now. Yes. They're a bit more common now than they
00:01:48.960 were in the 90s. Yes. But interestingly in the 19th century political assassinations were much much
00:01:56.940 more common. Right. Not just in the United States but across the world or in Europe and things. Much
00:02:01.980 much more common. I had a look at list of US presidents have had an assassination attempt
00:02:05.460 and it is a lot. Yeah. Most of them. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There was one I really liked. Oh who was
00:02:13.240 it? The who's the ball moose guy? The what? Who? The ball moose guy. TR. TR. Yeah. Yeah. Not Tommy
00:02:19.620 Robinson. Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt. Yeah. He I I found this while doing a bit of research.
00:02:24.760 Well he um got struck with a bullet and just before he was about to give a speech and they're all
00:02:31.860 looking at him saying oh dear that that looks a bit nasty and he's like yes but I'm giving my speech
00:02:36.500 first and he went and gave an hour-long speech and then they rushed him to the hospital. Yeah.
00:02:42.980 So yeah I happen to know all about I'm going to do a bit of content probably Benjamin Boyce
00:02:46.600 soon all about TR. So I've been reading about TR. Right. For uh six months or more. Yeah. So I
00:02:53.800 happen to know loads about it's funny you should mention him you didn't you didn't say before we
00:02:57.900 started you're going to talk about him but straight off the bat something I know a fair bit about. Yeah
00:03:01.600 actually he was already giving the speech. I wasn't right. The guy shot in pretty much point
00:03:05.860 blank range right in the middle of the chest basically in the middle of the chest. Right.
00:03:10.420 Uh it must have been a small caliber gun because it it he had something in his pocket I think um
00:03:18.120 oh that was it the notes to the speech. Yes. He had in his pocket and it went through that
00:03:23.620 went through that and then into his peck. Yes. And then stopped there. Yeah. So very very close to
00:03:31.460 kidding me. He hadn't if it if it wasn't for the notes. Yeah. And he said um at the time like as it
00:03:37.880 happened they obviously apprehended the guy straight away and he said it takes more than
00:03:43.140 that to kill a ball miss. That's the one. Yes. And then continued his speech and finished his speech.
00:03:48.500 Yes. And apparently the bullet was lodged in his pectoral muscle for the rest of his life.
00:03:54.100 They never came out. Oh right. Okay. So anyway a little bit of detail there. I also looked up
00:03:59.600 I also looked up the stats on journalists who've been killed and it's a bit like it's a bit like
00:04:04.680 this other other stat that I've got in the um a bit like 9-11 blows out the numbers for political
00:04:11.780 murders. Israel just completely blows out the numbers for journalists who've been killed.
00:04:15.660 Oh right. Well they kill their own journalists. Well it's it's it's more that journalists keep going to 0.97
00:04:23.100 Gaza or something. Right. And then getting. I see. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I know Russia has got a big
00:04:30.280 body count when it comes to journalists. Yes. Not insane. Hmm. But a big much much bigger than
00:04:38.460 other western countries. Yes. We just tend to jail them here or harass them. Yeah. Or let them get 0.99
00:04:43.560 away with complete libel and treason. Depending on which side they're on. Just let them do whatever
00:04:47.420 they want it seems. In Russia if you cross a certain line with Putin um yeah you you sort of
00:04:54.760 you disappear or you wind up dead. As long as you as long as the as long as the line is nice and clear
00:04:59.040 you can you can operate in those terms of service. Yeah. It's not like it's not like bloody YouTube
00:05:04.800 where you never know actually where the line is. Yeah. Yeah I don't like that. That is the one
00:05:10.240 thing I say about Putin whenever we make content. Yes. Semi-regularly. Hmm. Or I semi-regularly do a segment
00:05:16.080 about the Russian-Ukraine war. People think I'm like a Russian shill. Hmm. Because I think
00:05:21.740 Ukraine should give in or have already lost. Okay. I always make the point I'm not a Putin
00:05:26.860 fan. Yeah. And I always make the point he murders loads of journalists. Yes. I always
00:05:31.580 make that point because he does. I wouldn't want to be doing podcast podcast ski of the
00:05:36.900 Lotus Eater scheme in in Russia. No. But that probably wouldn't work out. No. Yeah. Because
00:05:42.040 I would want to say this guy is a would-be. Yes. Well tyrant. It's not I wouldn't really
00:05:49.120 call him a tyrant but an autocrat. Yes. A total autocrat. Yes. He wouldn't like you saying
00:05:54.580 that in Russia. Yes. He wouldn't really stand for that anyway. I mean we've got a list of
00:06:01.780 people that we can talk through. I mean people who have been politically assassinated in the
00:06:06.960 last whatever since recorded history began. Okay. So I mainly focus on the slightly more
00:06:11.760 recent stuff. But going back to our question of did the assassination have any impact and
00:06:18.960 were the goals achieved? Near the top of my list I've got Franz Ferdinand. Right. Did anything
00:06:25.580 happen as a result of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand? Something happened. Right.
00:06:32.580 Something happened. Right. What was that? Yeah. A small a small conflict scuffle. Yeah.
00:06:42.040 Well World War One. Right. Okay. Yeah. It tipped off. Yes. It tipped off. I mean it didn't
00:06:46.820 actually in fact you've got it there. It was on the 28th of June. Yes. And you know the
00:06:52.160 war doesn't start until August. Famously the guns of August. So it's not like he was murdered
00:06:57.200 and like the next day or within a week World War One starts. But historians look back at
00:07:03.940 it and it seems it absolutely seems to have been the trigger for it. Because he was the
00:07:08.700 heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yeah. He's got a weird story getting there isn't he? Because
00:07:13.200 I looked at this and it turns out that Franz Ferdinand is a absolute championship grade A level 0.99
00:07:20.880 arsehole. I mean he's a proper. I think so. Yeah. Okay. Apparently he managed to alienate 0.98
00:07:26.100 everybody he ever met with the exception of one woman who he married. Right. Right. So
00:07:31.440 he was an arsehole. And also right apparently he shot something like 250,000 animals. He 0.99
00:07:38.660 was a prolific hunter. That was big at the time that sort of thing. Yeah. If there had been
00:07:43.580 just a few more Franz Ferdinands you know the early 20th century would have rivaled the
00:07:49.680 Permian extinction. Right. So he was a massive arsehole. But the emperor. Yeah. Right. He
00:07:55.220 was a dick. Yeah. He was a total dick. And my understanding is that the guy who was supposed 1.00
00:08:02.800 to be the heir, the emperor's kid, his son, he was a pussy. Okay. And basically the emperor 1.00
00:08:14.140 who was a bit of a dick looked at this son of his who was a bit of a pussy and was like 1.00
00:08:18.040 I'm going to toughen you up lad. And he got his most ball breaking like army captain and 1.00
00:08:24.280 said right throughout his like childhood and teens I want a cannon going off next to his
00:08:29.600 head every few minutes until we toughened him up. And so this poor kid was basically
00:08:34.520 stuck out in uniform which was a kind of an Austro-Hungarian thing. You know, shove him 0.99
00:08:38.460 in a uniform, get him marching, do some military shit. But this guy was absolutely beasted by 0.99
00:08:44.740 this ball breaking captain or whatever he was. Right. And then the son, because he's
00:08:50.360 a pussy, he couldn't take this. And he kept on going, Dad, I can't take this. And his 1.00
00:08:55.800 dad, the emperor, who was a dick. 1.00
00:08:57.720 Franz Joseph. 0.99
00:08:58.720 Paul Joseph.
00:08:59.720 Franz Joseph.
00:09:00.720 No, not Paul Joseph Watson. No, Franz Joseph. Franz Joseph was, no, I'm not having it. We're
00:09:05.560 going to toughen you up, lad. And the boy kept on saying I can't take it until he killed 0.62
00:09:09.700 himself. And then my understanding is that the airship then went to some other bloke who,
00:09:18.720 I don't know, maybe was gay or something. He was immediately like, no, I'm not doing this. 1.00
00:09:22.800 And he just abdicated immediately. Right. And then it went to Franz Ferdinand, who nobody
00:09:28.800 liked. But he did have one quality. He was basically the only person in the higher ups
00:09:38.500 who was dead against war with the Russians.
00:09:40.720 All right. Yeah. So, okay. There's tons to unpack there. I mean, I thought we'd be talking
00:09:47.800 more about the events of Sarajevo, but I happen to be very, very interested in Franz Joseph.
00:09:53.800 Right. Okay.
00:09:54.720 Incidentally, Apostonic Majesty's got some great content on Franz Joseph.
00:09:58.180 Oh, he likes the Austro-Hungarians, doesn't he?
00:09:59.880 Yeah. Well, Franz Joseph was an absolutely pivotal person. He ruled for ages, decades.
00:10:06.280 Well, didn't he come to the throne like 19 or something silly like that? 0.75
00:10:09.200 Yeah. He came to the throne young. He died old. And so he ruled, he was emperor of the 0.86
00:10:14.960 Austro-Hungarian Empire for like 60 years or...
00:10:18.100 Was he the last one?
00:10:19.160 Yeah. Not the last one.
00:10:21.880 But effectively, because the other one didn't last long.
00:10:23.640 Because the next one was, yeah, emperor for like two years at the end of World War I.
00:10:28.220 Yeah. And that's like Liz's trust.
00:10:29.580 And then it all ended. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah, Franz Joseph, he was a bit of a dick.
00:10:36.240 Yeah. 1.00
00:10:36.520 He absolutely was a bit of a dick. And, yeah, his proper son, there's a massive scandal about 0.99
00:10:42.080 it, actually. His son entered a suicide pact with some girl.
00:10:47.500 Yes.
00:10:47.860 He was some like 17-year-old girl or something. And like one night retired to bed early with
00:10:57.100 her. And in the morning, they're both found dead. He'd shot her, stayed up all night in
00:11:02.700 the evening, stayed up all night drinking, then shot himself. And that was the heir to the
00:11:08.420 Austro-Hungarian Empire. But the thing is, even at the end of the 19th century, everyone knew
00:11:15.500 that the Austro-Hungarian Empire sort of wasn't fit for purpose, couldn't really last.
00:11:20.820 Right. Okay.
00:11:21.360 I mean, it was the Ottoman Empire that was known as the sick man of Europe. But the Austro-Hungarian 1.00
00:11:25.060 Empire was very much a sick man of Europe as well. 0.93
00:11:27.520 Yes. 0.92
00:11:27.780 So it was sort of a poison chalice. Everyone sort of knew that when old Franz Joseph goes,
00:11:33.560 it's going to be an end of an era. And like the Hungarians will probably rise up and those 1.00
00:11:39.080 people in the Balkans will probably rise up. And it's a poison chalice. It's a job you 1.00
00:11:44.160 don't really want. 1.00
00:11:45.780 Well, it's kind of a good thing then that his son was a bit of a pussy and took himself 1.00
00:11:49.900 out. Because he wouldn't have been able to keep that shit together. 1.00
00:11:52.440 Probably not. 0.99
00:11:53.440 And the other guy, I don't know what was going on with him, but he didn't want people looking
00:11:57.660 too closely at him, whatever he was up to. But Franz Ferdinand was a bit of an arsehole 0.98
00:12:02.140 and he might have been able to do it. And more to the point, because he was so against war 0.97
00:12:07.420 with the Serbs. I mean, to be fair, my understanding is he hated the Serbs. He considered them subhuman.
00:12:16.780 But he didn't want to go to war with them.
00:12:18.240 So, yeah. So, Austrians consider themselves the senior partner in the entire Austro-Hungarian
00:12:25.600 Empire. Absolutely. Yeah. And Serbs are like Slavic. 1.00
00:12:29.760 Yes.
00:12:30.100 Yeah. They're not Germanic and they're troublesome. So, yeah, he absolutely was superior. 1.00
00:12:35.880 The thing is, even though he might have hated them to some extent, as you already mentioned,
00:12:40.920 he was absolutely a reformer and a conciliator. His whole thing, maybe he would have been strong
00:12:46.240 enough to at least hold together a rump of the Austro-Hungarian Empire because he was
00:12:50.440 quite strong. Like you say, he married his wife, Sophie, against the wishes of Franz Joseph.
00:12:56.320 So, he was quite strong-minded. He actually had his own mind.
00:12:59.660 Yes. Because the son never stood up to his dad ever. Whereas Franz Ferdinand, because he
00:13:06.200 was a championship level arsehole, arguing with people was just his thing. He just did it 0.96
00:13:11.560 all the time. And I understand he wanted to marry a mere countess. Yeah. And it's like,
00:13:15.980 you can't marry, I mean, that's basically like two up from common. What are you doing,
00:13:20.600 boy? Yeah.
00:13:21.540 But he was like, no.
00:13:22.480 Yeah. I will never recognise her. She can't be, she can't wear a crown. She can't, I won't
00:13:28.360 like have her in my company or anything. Yeah. He completely is a total dick about it.
00:13:34.020 Yeah. 1.00
00:13:34.340 Yes.
00:13:34.640 But when it comes to politics and war, Franz Joseph was a reformer. And that's often the
00:13:39.860 way, actually, people that get assassinated often are people that try and make, try and
00:13:47.620 make peace. Yes.
00:13:49.360 I mean, a couple of ones that spring to mind, JFK, Yitzhak Rabin, Anwar Sadat, people that
00:13:55.020 try and, that are actually trying to do the right thing. Yes.
00:13:58.800 The harder line version of their own side kill them. Yes. 1.00
00:14:02.400 I mean, that's not exactly what happened to Franz Joseph, but still. Or, yeah, I thought
00:14:07.940 of another example. There was one of the Tsars, the Tsar Nicholas II's grandfather, the one
00:14:17.080 that was blown up by Lenin's brothers' faction. Right.
00:14:22.860 Anyway, he was, he was a massive reformer. And it was the people that thought he hadn't
00:14:27.680 gone far enough in his reforms that killed him. Right.
00:14:30.800 It's sort of often...
00:14:32.040 With the old adage, if you give them an inch, they're one a mile kind of thing.
00:14:36.820 Another thing is anarchists. In the 19th century, anarchist killers were a big thing.
00:14:45.620 So this is like the proto-Michael Malice, is it?
00:14:50.340 Oh, no, because Michael Malice is an ANCAP, isn't he?
00:14:53.740 Well, he does describe himself as an anarchist of some sort. I don't know which flavour...
00:14:58.000 Yeah, well, there's two main flavours of anarchism, isn't there?
00:15:01.020 Right.
00:15:01.120 There's sort of a right-leaning one.
00:15:02.820 Oh, the ANCAPs, yeah.
00:15:03.820 Yeah.
00:15:04.860 An anarcho-capitalist.
00:15:05.600 And then, yeah, a capitalist.
00:15:07.720 Yes.
00:15:08.140 An anarcho-capitalist, like a hardline sort of, not libertarian, it's an ANCAP, but...
00:15:12.920 And then you've got like the commie side of anarchism.
00:15:15.340 Oh, yes.
00:15:15.560 I'm so commie...
00:15:16.620 Yeah, you don't get those so much.
00:15:17.140 ...that being commie isn't good enough.
00:15:18.500 If I'm an anarchist.
00:15:20.300 Those types.
00:15:21.160 You don't get those much anymore, do you?
00:15:22.620 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:23.220 If you would like to see the full version of this premium video, please head over to
00:15:26.780 lotuseaters.com and subscribe to gain full access to all of our premium content.
00:15:31.420 1NCAP.
00:15:33.100 2NCAP.
00:15:34.340 3NCAP.
00:15:34.920 4NCAP.
00:15:35.920 3NCAP.
00:15:36.900 1NCAP.
00:15:38.800 3NCAP.
00:15:39.840 4NCAP.
00:15:40.960 CARNER OF THEIR PIEPERS.