PREVIEW： Brokenomics ｜ Political assassinations with Beau Dade
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Summary
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
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Hello and welcome to Brokonomics. Now in this episode I wanted to look at political assassinations
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following the murder of Charlie Kirk and ask the question did the assassinations of past,
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did they have any particular impact and were the assassins goals met or did it backfire
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completely? Now of course I know a little bit about things that happened but we have in the
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studio today with us Bo who is our chief chap of knowing about things that have happened.
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So thank you for coming on Bo. Yeah no thank you it's always a pleasure. Oh good thank you very
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much. I must do your show again quite soon. I've got a documentary to watch which I keep remembering
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every time I think it and then I'm going to get back to that soon so we do something together soon.
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Political assassinations. So I looked at some of the numbers and apparently the US has had
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something like 3,600 political assassinations since 1975. Oh really? Yes however 83 percent of them
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occurred on 9-11. Oh I was going to say that's a fantastically high number. Yes. But okay if you
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count everyone that died in 9-11? Yes. All right. So it's nearly all of them then isn't it?
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Uh 83 percent. Okay. Of that or whatever that is so that's most of them and then you get and then you
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get um Islamic terrorism is like the next one at like 10 percent or something so. They're counting all
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of those as well? Yes. Okay. If you if you strip them out I mean they happen on a regular beat but
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they're fairly spaced out they're not they're not an everyday occurrence yet although as we will probably
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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
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60s and 70s they were more common than they are now. Yes. They're a bit more common now than they
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were in the 90s. Yes. But interestingly in the 19th century political assassinations were much much
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more common. Right. Not just in the United States but across the world or in Europe and things. Much
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much more common. I had a look at list of US presidents have had an assassination attempt
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and it is a lot. Yeah. Most of them. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There was one I really liked. Oh who was
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it? The who's the ball moose guy? The what? Who? The ball moose guy. TR. TR. Yeah. Yeah. Not Tommy
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Robinson. Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt. Yeah. He I I found this while doing a bit of research.
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Well he um got struck with a bullet and just before he was about to give a speech and they're all
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looking at him saying oh dear that that looks a bit nasty and he's like yes but I'm giving my speech
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first and he went and gave an hour-long speech and then they rushed him to the hospital. Yeah.
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So yeah I happen to know all about I'm going to do a bit of content probably Benjamin Boyce
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soon all about TR. So I've been reading about TR. Right. For uh six months or more. Yeah. So I
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happen to know loads about it's funny you should mention him you didn't you didn't say before we
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started you're going to talk about him but straight off the bat something I know a fair bit about. Yeah
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actually he was already giving the speech. I wasn't right. The guy shot in pretty much point
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blank range right in the middle of the chest basically in the middle of the chest. Right.
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Uh it must have been a small caliber gun because it it he had something in his pocket I think um
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oh that was it the notes to the speech. Yes. He had in his pocket and it went through that
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went through that and then into his peck. Yes. And then stopped there. Yeah. So very very close to
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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
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happened they obviously apprehended the guy straight away and he said it takes more than
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that to kill a ball miss. That's the one. Yes. And then continued his speech and finished his speech.
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Yes. And apparently the bullet was lodged in his pectoral muscle for the rest of his life.
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They never came out. Oh right. Okay. So anyway a little bit of detail there. I also looked up
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I also looked up the stats on journalists who've been killed and it's a bit like it's a bit like
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this other other stat that I've got in the um a bit like 9-11 blows out the numbers for political
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murders. Israel just completely blows out the numbers for journalists who've been killed.
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Oh right. Well they kill their own journalists. Well it's it's it's more that journalists keep going to
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Gaza or something. Right. And then getting. I see. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I know Russia has got a big
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body count when it comes to journalists. Yes. Not insane. Hmm. But a big much much bigger than
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other western countries. Yes. We just tend to jail them here or harass them. Yeah. Or let them get
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away with complete libel and treason. Depending on which side they're on. Just let them do whatever
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they want it seems. In Russia if you cross a certain line with Putin um yeah you you sort of
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you disappear or you wind up dead. As long as you as long as the as long as the line is nice and clear
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you can you can operate in those terms of service. Yeah. It's not like it's not like bloody YouTube
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where you never know actually where the line is. Yeah. Yeah I don't like that. That is the one
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thing I say about Putin whenever we make content. Yes. Semi-regularly. Hmm. Or I semi-regularly do a segment
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about the Russian-Ukraine war. People think I'm like a Russian shill. Hmm. Because I think
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Ukraine should give in or have already lost. Okay. I always make the point I'm not a Putin
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fan. Yeah. And I always make the point he murders loads of journalists. Yes. I always
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make that point because he does. I wouldn't want to be doing podcast podcast ski of the
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Lotus Eater scheme in in Russia. No. But that probably wouldn't work out. No. Yeah. Because
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I would want to say this guy is a would-be. Yes. Well tyrant. It's not I wouldn't really
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call him a tyrant but an autocrat. Yes. A total autocrat. Yes. He wouldn't like you saying
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that in Russia. Yes. He wouldn't really stand for that anyway. I mean we've got a list of
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people that we can talk through. I mean people who have been politically assassinated in the
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last whatever since recorded history began. Okay. So I mainly focus on the slightly more
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recent stuff. But going back to our question of did the assassination have any impact and
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were the goals achieved? Near the top of my list I've got Franz Ferdinand. Right. Did anything
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happen as a result of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand? Something happened. Right.
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Something happened. Right. What was that? Yeah. A small a small conflict scuffle. Yeah.
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Well World War One. Right. Okay. Yeah. It tipped off. Yes. It tipped off. I mean it didn't
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actually in fact you've got it there. It was on the 28th of June. Yes. And you know the
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war doesn't start until August. Famously the guns of August. So it's not like he was murdered
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and like the next day or within a week World War One starts. But historians look back at
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it and it seems it absolutely seems to have been the trigger for it. Because he was the
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heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yeah. He's got a weird story getting there isn't he? Because
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I looked at this and it turns out that Franz Ferdinand is a absolute championship grade A level
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arsehole. I mean he's a proper. I think so. Yeah. Okay. Apparently he managed to alienate
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everybody he ever met with the exception of one woman who he married. Right. Right. So
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he was an arsehole. And also right apparently he shot something like 250,000 animals. He
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was a prolific hunter. That was big at the time that sort of thing. Yeah. If there had been
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just a few more Franz Ferdinands you know the early 20th century would have rivaled the
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Permian extinction. Right. So he was a massive arsehole. But the emperor. Yeah. Right. He
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was a dick. Yeah. He was a total dick. And my understanding is that the guy who was supposed
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to be the heir, the emperor's kid, his son, he was a pussy. Okay. And basically the emperor
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who was a bit of a dick looked at this son of his who was a bit of a pussy and was like
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I'm going to toughen you up lad. And he got his most ball breaking like army captain and
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said right throughout his like childhood and teens I want a cannon going off next to his
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head every few minutes until we toughened him up. And so this poor kid was basically
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stuck out in uniform which was a kind of an Austro-Hungarian thing. You know, shove him
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in a uniform, get him marching, do some military shit. But this guy was absolutely beasted by
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this ball breaking captain or whatever he was. Right. And then the son, because he's
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a pussy, he couldn't take this. And he kept on going, Dad, I can't take this. And his
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No, not Paul Joseph Watson. No, Franz Joseph. Franz Joseph was, no, I'm not having it. We're
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going to toughen you up, lad. And the boy kept on saying I can't take it until he killed
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himself. And then my understanding is that the airship then went to some other bloke who,
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I don't know, maybe was gay or something. He was immediately like, no, I'm not doing this.
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And he just abdicated immediately. Right. And then it went to Franz Ferdinand, who nobody
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liked. But he did have one quality. He was basically the only person in the higher ups
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All right. Yeah. So, okay. There's tons to unpack there. I mean, I thought we'd be talking
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more about the events of Sarajevo, but I happen to be very, very interested in Franz Joseph.
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Incidentally, Apostonic Majesty's got some great content on Franz Joseph.
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Oh, he likes the Austro-Hungarians, doesn't he?
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Yeah. Well, Franz Joseph was an absolutely pivotal person. He ruled for ages, decades.
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Well, didn't he come to the throne like 19 or something silly like that?
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Yeah. He came to the throne young. He died old. And so he ruled, he was emperor of the
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Austro-Hungarian Empire for like 60 years or...
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But effectively, because the other one didn't last long.
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Because the next one was, yeah, emperor for like two years at the end of World War I.
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And then it all ended. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah, Franz Joseph, he was a bit of a dick.
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He absolutely was a bit of a dick. And, yeah, his proper son, there's a massive scandal about
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it, actually. His son entered a suicide pact with some girl.
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He was some like 17-year-old girl or something. And like one night retired to bed early with
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her. And in the morning, they're both found dead. He'd shot her, stayed up all night in
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the evening, stayed up all night drinking, then shot himself. And that was the heir to the
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Austro-Hungarian Empire. But the thing is, even at the end of the 19th century, everyone knew
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that the Austro-Hungarian Empire sort of wasn't fit for purpose, couldn't really last.
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I mean, it was the Ottoman Empire that was known as the sick man of Europe. But the Austro-Hungarian
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Empire was very much a sick man of Europe as well.
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So it was sort of a poison chalice. Everyone sort of knew that when old Franz Joseph goes,
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it's going to be an end of an era. And like the Hungarians will probably rise up and those
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people in the Balkans will probably rise up. And it's a poison chalice. It's a job you
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Well, it's kind of a good thing then that his son was a bit of a pussy and took himself
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out. Because he wouldn't have been able to keep that shit together.
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And the other guy, I don't know what was going on with him, but he didn't want people looking
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too closely at him, whatever he was up to. But Franz Ferdinand was a bit of an arsehole
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and he might have been able to do it. And more to the point, because he was so against war
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with the Serbs. I mean, to be fair, my understanding is he hated the Serbs. He considered them subhuman.
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So, yeah. So, Austrians consider themselves the senior partner in the entire Austro-Hungarian
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Empire. Absolutely. Yeah. And Serbs are like Slavic.
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Yeah. They're not Germanic and they're troublesome. So, yeah, he absolutely was superior.
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The thing is, even though he might have hated them to some extent, as you already mentioned,
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he was absolutely a reformer and a conciliator. His whole thing, maybe he would have been strong
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enough to at least hold together a rump of the Austro-Hungarian Empire because he was
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quite strong. Like you say, he married his wife, Sophie, against the wishes of Franz Joseph.
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So, he was quite strong-minded. He actually had his own mind.
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Yes. Because the son never stood up to his dad ever. Whereas Franz Ferdinand, because he
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was a championship level arsehole, arguing with people was just his thing. He just did it
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all the time. And I understand he wanted to marry a mere countess. Yeah. And it's like,
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you can't marry, I mean, that's basically like two up from common. What are you doing,
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Yeah. I will never recognise her. She can't be, she can't wear a crown. She can't, I won't
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like have her in my company or anything. Yeah. He completely is a total dick about it.
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But when it comes to politics and war, Franz Joseph was a reformer. And that's often the
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way, actually, people that get assassinated often are people that try and make, try and
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I mean, a couple of ones that spring to mind, JFK, Yitzhak Rabin, Anwar Sadat, people that
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try and, that are actually trying to do the right thing. Yes.
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The harder line version of their own side kill them. Yes.
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I mean, that's not exactly what happened to Franz Joseph, but still. Or, yeah, I thought
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of another example. There was one of the Tsars, the Tsar Nicholas II's grandfather, the one
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that was blown up by Lenin's brothers' faction. Right.
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Anyway, he was, he was a massive reformer. And it was the people that thought he hadn't
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gone far enough in his reforms that killed him. Right.
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With the old adage, if you give them an inch, they're one a mile kind of thing.
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Another thing is anarchists. In the 19th century, anarchist killers were a big thing.
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So this is like the proto-Michael Malice, is it?
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Oh, no, because Michael Malice is an ANCAP, isn't he?
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Well, he does describe himself as an anarchist of some sort. I don't know which flavour...
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Yeah, well, there's two main flavours of anarchism, isn't there?
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An anarcho-capitalist, like a hardline sort of, not libertarian, it's an ANCAP, but...
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And then you've got like the commie side of anarchism.
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