The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 23, 2025


PREVIEW： Brokenomics ｜ Political assassinations with Beau Dade


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

178.81131

Word Count

2,813

Sentence Count

342

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary


Transcript

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
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
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
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
00:07:20.880 arsehole. I mean he's a proper. I think so. Yeah. Okay. Apparently he managed to alienate
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
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
00:08:02.800 to be the heir, the emperor's kid, his son, he was a pussy. Okay. And basically the emperor
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
00:08:18.040 I'm going to toughen you up lad. And he got his most ball breaking like army captain and
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
00:08:38.460 in a uniform, get him marching, do some military shit. But this guy was absolutely beasted by
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
00:08:55.800 dad, the emperor, who was a dick.
00:08:57.720 Franz Joseph.
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
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.
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?
00:10:09.200 Yeah. He came to the throne young. He died old. And so he ruled, he was emperor of the
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.
00:10:36.520 He absolutely was a bit of a dick. And, yeah, his proper son, there's a massive scandal about
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
00:11:25.060 Empire was very much a sick man of Europe as well.
00:11:27.520 Yes.
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
00:11:39.080 people in the Balkans will probably rise up. And it's a poison chalice. It's a job you
00:11:44.160 don't really want.
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
00:11:49.900 out. Because he wouldn't have been able to keep that shit together.
00:11:52.440 Probably not.
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
00:12:02.140 and he might have been able to do it. And more to the point, because he was so against war
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.
00:12:29.760 Yes.
00:12:30.100 Yeah. They're not Germanic and they're troublesome. So, yeah, he absolutely was superior.
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
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.
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.
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
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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.