The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1272

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Eaters episode 1272 for Monday the 13th of October

00:00:08.260 2025. I'm your host Luca joined today by Josh. Hello there. And Firas. Hello. And today we're

00:00:15.420 going to be talking all about how one tweet blocked further hate speech in Ireland. You could

00:00:21.900 even frame it in, I almost considered a sloppier title, how one tweet saved free speech in Ireland

00:00:28.160 but then I realised I'd have to hate myself if I did that. How one tweet saved the West.

00:00:34.780 Then we're going to be talking about the emboldened Muslim Brotherhood and what they're up to in 0.99

00:00:41.980 Britain mostly. And then we're going to talk about how we can restore our castles, take back our

00:00:47.800 castles and restore them to being centres in our community. So before we start the segments as well

00:00:54.780 just some announcements. Firas is going to be going live at three with your next episode of Real

00:01:00.360 Politique aren't you? Yes. So talking a little bit more detail about the Muslim Brotherhood, the

00:01:04.920 Jamaat-e-Islami in Britain and why they are such a problem and what their plans are and how successful 1.00

00:01:11.340 they've been in those plans so far. So yeah. Damn shame. Damn shame. 0.86

00:01:16.400 I blame the government. Yep. I blame them too. I blame them too. When in doubt. And also, just also 1.00

00:01:23.460 another announcement, Stelios' second webinar for his new course, Ancient Greek Virtue Ethics. He's going

00:01:31.800 to be having that webinar at 6pm on Thursday. So if you'd like to sign up, go to the website.

00:01:37.540 UK time. Yeah, UK time, obviously, where we dictate what time is and where we create the

00:01:45.600 time zones. Anyway. It's not BST for the time being. That always throws people off. It's not

00:01:49.880 back to GMT yet. We will return. Anyway, I'm getting a trip to play with myself. So Josh,

00:01:56.740 over to you and yours. Sorry. I am sticking my foot out a bit there, helping you along.

00:02:01.380 So, good news everyone. I'm going to be talking about how one post on X caused a snowball of events

00:02:06.960 that recently resulted in the Irish Parliament, I suppose, rejecting pressure from the EU to impose

00:02:13.220 stricter hate speech laws. And I'm going to walk you through it. And this is some good moralisation

00:02:18.540 because it shows one person on social media can draw attention to an issue. Lots of other

00:02:26.380 commentators can then amplify that and say, listen, actually, this is a really big problem. And

00:02:31.140 there's actually quite a good case for this being the origin point of the pushback, which

00:02:36.480 snowballed into them saying, actually, maybe this is going to be quite unpopular. Let's

00:02:40.920 not do that. So, it's a nice bit of reassurance that you can sometimes have an impact. The fact

00:02:47.640 I've never done a segment like this before in all of my five years of doing this. Ignore

00:02:52.100 that. But maybe this is an exception and not the rule, but it does seem to sometimes happen,

00:02:59.680 which should give you hope. And that's what I want to do. So, going all the way back to

00:03:04.820 the 26th of April 2023 in the Dalai Lairon, which is the Irish Parliament, I suppose, or

00:03:11.540 you know, their equivalent of Congress, they had this, the Criminal Justice Incitement to

00:03:17.520 Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill, which had been in the works since 2022. And it

00:03:23.000 was coming towards its sort of final stages. And there's lots of discourse here that you can

00:03:29.920 have a look at, but I'm not going to bore you with. But what initially drew attention

00:03:36.080 to it, you can take your pick which tweet is the origin point. But I think it's fair

00:03:40.800 to say that one of these three is the origin point of the pushback, although they sort of

00:03:46.440 helped each other a little bit. So, this account, Free Speech Ireland, came out with

00:03:50.640 this amendment from, and this is the People Before Profit. So, if we hover over that, that's

00:03:58.980 what that is, which is Ireland's largest eco-socialist organisation to include the UN Convention on Human

00:04:06.200 Rights Protections on Free Speech within the Hate Speech Bill has been defeated. So, that

00:04:11.180 sounds misleading. You think, okay, they're socialists. Well, they're trying to restrict

00:04:16.720 speech on the right, of course. Well, actually, no. They were concerned about the effect of

00:04:21.940 freedom of speech, which is a pleasant surprise. So, it's too far even for them. And we'll see

00:04:29.000 why in a second. And it says, as well as one to exercise this section, allowing for the prosecution

00:04:35.780 of individuals possessing offensive material without communicating it. And I think that this

00:04:40.160 is one of the points of concern, is that you could have offensive material on a device

00:04:46.780 that is against the law, not distribute it to anyone. It could potentially even be sent

00:04:53.360 to you, say, on something like WhatsApp. And you know how WhatsApp can sometimes automatically

00:04:57.720 download pictures. It could be sent to you. You'd not notice the message. It'll be on your

00:05:03.000 device, and you could be prosecuted for it.

00:05:05.300 I'm constantly on sort of Islamist forums and looking around at what you guys are saying.

00:05:12.020 For research purposes.

00:05:13.660 Really, for research purposes. My only defense is that I have quite an eclectic collection

00:05:19.520 from the Shia jihadis to the Sunni jihadis to the Syrian guys, and everything in between.

00:05:25.080 So, they all declare each other apostate, so I can't be a member of any one of them. That's 0.83

00:05:29.640 going to be my defense when they arrest me for it.

00:05:31.200 I've got an extensive collection of communist literature, so I'm hoping that that's going

00:05:35.900 to help me out.

00:05:36.800 No, I think that saves you, definitely. That's sort of, oh, he's one of us.

00:05:41.380 Meanwhile, I'm definitely going down for memes.

00:05:44.480 Yeah, yeah.

00:05:45.400 Memelord Luca. Pray for him when he's in prison. But let's get to the post that I think started

00:05:51.460 it off myself. Although, of course, I don't mind if you pick that free speech one, which

00:05:56.180 he is originally quoting here. But it was Keefe's one that really took off.

00:06:01.000 Ireland is about to pass one of the most radical hate speech bills yet.

00:06:03.820 Merely possessing hateful material on your device is enough to face prison time. Not

00:06:07.860 only that, but the burden of proof is shifted to the accused, who is expected to prove they

00:06:12.380 didn't intend to use the material to spread hate. Which, of course, is not innocent until

00:06:17.380 proven guilty, is it?

00:06:18.360 Yes.

00:06:19.200 This clause is so radical that even the Trotskyist people before profit opposed it as a flagrant

00:06:24.120 violation of civil liberties, dark times. And of course, this was a little while ago.

00:06:27.620 This is while it was going on. So this was on the 28th of April. So two days after that

00:06:33.840 original tweet there. And he also shares parts of the bill and highlights the pertinent sections,

00:06:38.640 which I think is always very important. And if people have objections to legislation, I

00:06:42.760 think you should always do this. Outline this is the evil part. And sometimes the whole

00:06:48.200 bill can be evil.

00:06:49.120 Right.

00:06:50.520 So I'm going to read the two sections he's highlighted here.

00:06:53.860 Prepares or possesses material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person

00:06:58.500 or group of persons on account of their protected characteristics or any of those characteristics.

00:07:03.940 And then it carries on to say the person shall be presumed until the contrary is proved

00:07:08.080 to have been in possession of the material in contravention of subsection one, which is,

00:07:14.560 I think, part of the one I just read. Obviously, there's more to it.

00:07:17.400 But obviously, this is awful. Of course, one of the main problems with hate speech legislation,

00:07:24.800 other than the fact that it's obviously used to weaponise in one political direction most

00:07:29.940 of the time, is that it's so subjective in terms of, you know, what is inciting violence?

00:07:35.620 I mean, unless you have a very strict definition of you're explicitly calling people to be violent,

00:07:40.320 which I think is how most people understand it, but it's not always applied that way.

00:07:44.320 And also hatred. I mean, you can...

00:07:47.340 What does that even mean?

00:07:48.200 I know. Also, you know, I can do, you know, I can donate money to people out of hatred if I really

00:07:54.300 want to. You know how sometimes there are fundraisers and you can add a little message.

00:07:58.600 You can donate money to them and do it out of hatred. But technically, you're giving them a

00:08:02.860 donation. You know, it's silly. Like this notion of you can also share things that are against 0.57

00:08:08.680 hate crime law dispassionately. I imagine some of the statistics I've posted on X probably

00:08:16.880 would meet the quota, but I did it dispassionately in an analytical way. No hatred in my heart,

00:08:23.560 just passion for truth. But of course, this is ridiculous. We've talked about this a lot. 0.98

00:08:28.320 This isn't necessarily the interesting thing. Of course, there's hate speech legislation.

00:08:32.140 It shouldn't exist. But it does. And we know about it already. So as is often the case,

00:08:40.280 Elon Musk gave it a big boost by replying, saying this is a massive attack on freedom

00:08:45.360 of speech. 3 million views, 96,000 people liking it.

00:08:51.160 How many did the original post have? 12 million.

00:08:53.640 Yeah, 12 million, 38. So it suggests that, OK, this platform does actually seem to be helping

00:09:00.160 things. Obviously, I've got a plethora of criticisms of X, particularly the accounts

00:09:05.680 that it boosts and how organic some of that is. And I think that it incentivizes low-quality

00:09:11.940 stuff and some state propaganda. But that, beside the point, there does seem to be an opportunity

00:09:17.440 now without people actively being persecuted by the left-controlled Twitter for these sorts

00:09:24.560 of posts to blow up. This is shortly after he was unbanned, I believe. And before I get

00:09:30.480 on to the reaction, I do want to mention another reassuring beacon of light in the world. And

00:09:36.340 that is Stelios, of course, and his course. He has a course called Introduction to Ancient

00:09:42.200 Greek Virtue Ethics. He is Greek. He's telling you about ancient Greece. You can't get better

00:09:46.480 than that. And the thing that I wanted to draw your attention to is on Thursday at 6 p.m.,

00:09:53.420 our time, British time, the best time, is your opportunity to put questions about his course

00:09:59.480 and ancient Greek virtue ethics, you know, Plato, Aristotle, and the like, to Stelios. So

00:10:05.040 if that interests you, you can go along and talk to him about ancient Greek wisdom. You

00:10:12.000 will come away feeling enlightened, and especially if you sign up for the course. But anyway, back

00:10:17.200 to current programming, there was a segment that aired on RTE, which if you're not familiar

00:10:24.020 with is sort of Ireland's equivalent of the BBC, right?

00:10:27.320 Yes, the state broadcaster.

00:10:28.820 Yes, it is. And the fact that Keith Woods, who, you know, is an online right commentator,

00:10:36.140 can put something out on Twitter, Elon Musk replies to it, and then the state broadcaster

00:10:40.660 basically reacts to it. Because prior to this post, no one was really talking about it,

00:10:48.480 as many legislation sort of goes under the radar, unless you're paying attention to the

00:10:53.360 parliamentary schedule of your respective country. Sometimes they can slip these things under

00:10:57.540 the radar, if people are, you know, not keeping their eyes on it.

00:11:00.880 Well, you know, slipping things in is really their only tactic, given they know they have

00:11:05.580 no mandate or consent for any of it that they do. It's all underhand, all the time.

00:11:10.620 But Blair did that with the Gender Recognition Act. 1.00

00:11:14.080 And with mass immigration.

00:11:16.020 And with mass immigration, yes.

00:11:17.860 So let's have a little listen to what they said, because it was surprisingly even-handed.

00:11:23.460 Ireland is introducing new incitement to hatred legislation.

00:11:27.540 That's because the existing law is seen as ineffective.

00:11:31.280 However, the new proposals have attracted criticism from at home and abroad.

00:11:36.580 The new legislation criminalises communication or behaviour that's likely to incite violence

00:11:42.520 or hatred against people because they're associated with a protected characteristic.

00:11:47.660 It says those characteristics are race, colour, penalty for an offence.

00:11:53.260 We get the idea here.

00:11:54.440 But there's a clause which says people in possession of hate speech material, without yet distributing

00:12:00.120 it, can also fall foul of the legislation.

00:12:03.860 Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted the legislation is a massive attack on freedom of speech.

00:12:09.000 And Donald Trump Jr. said it's insane what's happening in the free world.

00:12:13.740 And funnily enough, I don't...

00:12:16.200 We don't want to listen to him.

00:12:18.560 But it's interesting to me that they're actively pulling up the posts now of prominent people.

00:12:23.860 Of course, Trump Jr. saw it probably because of how widely it circulated and probably because

00:12:30.620 of Elon Musk interacting with it.

00:12:32.700 So it suggests that there is some sort of amplifying mechanism in place that puts pressure on media

00:12:42.360 organisations to talk about the pushback as well as the politicians themselves, which is

00:12:47.080 actually kind of reassuring because beforehand I was so cynical.

00:12:49.800 It's just like, yes, whatever happens online is basically worthless and all you're doing

00:12:53.480 is really making people angry about things that you can't change.

00:12:56.940 But this seems to be an exception to that rule, which I'm pleasantly surprised to see.

00:13:03.920 And it carried on to the point where there was more coverage of this.

00:13:09.800 This was this gentleman who shall not be named because he does not dignify it, accusing...

00:13:17.240 And you can't pronounce it.

00:13:18.600 Yeah, that too.

00:13:19.120 But, um, it says, um, where was it?

00:13:26.660 Ah, yes, here.

00:13:27.480 The outgoing, uh, you know, leader...

00:13:30.780 I rest my case.

00:13:32.460 T-shirt.

00:13:33.380 Um, that's what it sounds like to my English ears.

00:13:35.560 I'm sorry, Ireland.

00:13:36.360 I say it with love.

00:13:38.100 Um, said the party had buckled in the face of an online campaign of misinformation.

00:13:42.140 But it's interesting that it's drawing it to the online sphere, isn't it?

00:13:45.080 Yes.

00:13:45.360 It's acknowledging that...

00:13:46.120 Misinformation being highlighting clauses.

00:13:49.420 The bill, yeah.

00:13:50.600 Highlighting the bill.

00:13:51.920 Obviously, the rhetorical techniques are not the sharpest, because when you highlight the parts of the bill that you take exception to,

00:13:58.280 and they're objections from the far left and the right, you know, it's a little bit of a tough sell.

00:14:04.880 They were generally more correct about these things than the centre.

00:14:08.460 I know.

00:14:08.900 Still a time.

00:14:09.560 The centre, so far, is sort of my most hated part, just because of sheer contact with them.

00:14:14.640 And it carries on to say, Sinn Féin's spokesperson for justice, Pardali, said,

00:14:19.460 has called for the bill to be ditched entirely, saying it was badly thought through and is not fit for purpose,

00:14:23.760 despite the party voting the bill through in the dial last April.

00:14:28.160 Which is interesting.

00:14:29.680 So it suggests that...

00:14:31.620 It's like a herd of sheep.

00:14:33.360 I mean, they're told to vote, so they vote.

00:14:36.100 They don't have opinions of their own.

00:14:38.620 They don't have thoughts of their own.

00:14:39.860 They're too dull to have them, because nobody interesting wants to be in politics because of the price that you have to pay to be in politics,

00:14:45.460 which is that you're constantly smeared all the time.

00:14:47.800 But I think part of the reason he felt comfortable going out and saying,

00:14:52.200 yeah, actually, I don't agree with this, despite my party doing it, is because there was this pushback cross.

00:14:56.540 You wouldn't sit your head above the parapet without the pushback about that original post.

00:15:01.380 And so it enables rebellion in the sort of world of politics.

00:15:06.580 And there are other outlets pushing this as well.

00:15:08.760 Here's the Irish Examiner.

00:15:10.200 And this was later on in September, rather than in April, saying,

00:15:16.400 Minister for Justice Helen McEntree, NT, sorry, confirmed on Saturday that parts of the hate speech bill

00:15:24.160 that would make incitement to violence and hatred and offence would be removed.

00:15:27.260 She said this was being done because the government could not get consensus on the proposed legislation.

00:15:33.000 And then it goes down and talks about various people.

00:15:38.740 But the first person it mentions is a tech billionaire.

00:15:41.820 Elon Musk was among those who opposed the proposed laws, which aimed to modernize Ireland's legislation.

00:15:47.940 Interesting term there, modernize.

00:15:49.500 Modernize, as opposed to sort of tighten the screws on dissent.

00:15:53.380 Around the hate-related crimes.

00:15:55.360 Uphold traditional liberties.

00:15:57.020 Ah, God forbid.

00:15:58.120 Obviously, this is a bit loaded, but it is admitting that the online sphere did have some influence.

00:16:03.600 And then there was this, coming back to closer to the modern day.

00:16:09.900 This was May of 2025, so moving on a year or two now.

00:16:14.360 Ireland given two months to begin implementing hate speech laws or face legal action from EU.

00:16:19.840 Of course, this is part of the reason Britain left the EU.

00:16:23.080 Yeah, I know.

00:16:23.640 This is wild, isn't it?

00:16:25.360 It's like, censor your politicians or we're coming for you.

00:16:27.780 The EU didn't learn a damn thing from Brexit, did they? 0.61

00:16:32.380 Oh, no, it needs to be destroyed entirely. 0.99

00:16:34.020 I hate it with a passion. 0.98

00:16:35.720 It's one of the most evil institutions in all of Europe, and that's saying something.

00:16:41.780 So, where was I?

00:16:45.840 I've lost where I was.

00:16:46.780 But never mind.

00:16:48.940 The point being that the EU was basically trying to blackmail...

00:16:51.780 Let me read this for you, please.

00:16:55.680 Under existing EU rules on combating racism and xenophobia, the European Commission believes Ireland is allegedly failing to comply with laws first agreed to in 2008 surrounding the criminalization of race-based violence and hatred.

00:17:11.840 How can you criminalize hatred?

00:17:13.500 I don't understand.

00:17:14.180 I mean, I accept that you could call it a sin, fair enough, because that's then between you and your conscience.

00:17:20.480 But how do I read your mind and understand if you're simply reporting data accurately or are full of hatred?

00:17:29.240 Also, how do you select which groups this hatred applies to?

00:17:33.020 Because I hate people who talk on loudspeaker on public transport, but no one's going to prosecute me for that.

00:17:38.820 But if I point out which kinds of people are doing it, then they might.

00:17:42.720 Yes.

00:17:42.980 Interesting, isn't it?

00:17:43.760 It's almost like the application of the laws is selective on purpose to target specific people.

00:17:48.660 Exactly.

00:17:49.620 Exactly.

00:17:50.580 But here he is recently.

00:17:54.160 This is the actual new news from only a few days ago.

00:18:00.960 When I was restored on here in April 2023, one of the first issues I highlighted was Ireland's hate speech laws.

00:18:05.900 At that point, it had already passed our first house unopposed and looked an absolute certainty become law.

00:18:11.360 After the post below blew up with support from Elon Musk, it ignited a national debate on the bill in Ireland for the first time in its long legislative history.

00:18:20.560 Eventually, the popular backlash became so great that the government dropped it just a year prior.

00:18:25.320 No one even thought there was a possibility of this happening.

00:18:27.720 Yesterday, the government pledged to ignore a demand from the EU to implement hate speech laws.

00:18:32.340 This is a massive win for Ireland and everyone who played their part, pushing back against what would have been one of the most tyrannical speech bills in the West.

00:18:40.660 Never let people tell you what we do here doesn't matter.

00:18:44.240 And that's really reassuring and remoralizing.

00:18:47.240 It is.

00:18:47.880 It is.

00:18:48.280 And, of course, I would put some limits on this.

00:18:51.520 I think that if the government wants to do something very unpopular, they probably still will do it.

00:18:56.740 It depends on their political situation, how desperate they are to do it.

00:19:01.660 And, of course, Ireland, you know, sometimes does butt its head with the EU anyway.

00:19:07.860 So they're not necessarily afraid to oppose it.

00:19:10.980 And so there are certain conditions where these sorts of things can exist.

00:19:14.840 I don't know whether either of you can think of any others.

00:19:17.280 So I don't want to just say it was because of this single tweet, but I think it at least was a significant factor.

00:19:24.780 Didn't they make Ireland vote a couple of times until they got it right on the EU constitution?

00:19:30.760 That sounds about right, yeah.

00:19:32.600 They made the Dutch, I think, and the Irish vote again and again until they got the result that they wanted on an EU constitution.

00:19:40.580 Then it failed anyway.

00:19:42.360 Then they passed it as a treaty in 2008 or something like that.

00:19:46.060 And I think in that constitution, they had a big fight with the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church was saying, look, you have to include some reference to Europe's Christian heritage as part of any founding document for how the EU should be.

00:20:03.040 And the EU was like, no, absolutely not.

00:20:04.920 We refuse to recognize the role of Christianity in building Europe. 0.63

00:20:09.440 Okay.

00:20:10.940 What spaces are for religion in the technocracy?

00:20:13.900 Exactly.

00:20:14.760 Exactly.

00:20:15.740 The technocracy is the religion, right?

00:20:17.700 Yes.

00:20:17.860 So they keep on doing these anti-democratic things, but the online space does create some breathing room and some ability to strike back.

00:20:30.260 Well, you can tell, like when Elon at New Year last year started going hard on the group rape gangs and everything.

00:20:38.880 And obviously now you've got Labour dragging their heels and going through the motions, but that forced them into a position where actually they had to at least start answering questions about it.

00:20:50.060 It forced a dialogue.

00:20:51.520 It was like, no, you are going to address this.

00:20:53.760 And of course, this isn't the same as tangible results, but in a desperate situation, anything is better than nothing, right?

00:21:01.320 Yes.

00:21:01.520 So let's have a little listen to what they're actually talking about.

00:21:05.720 To reintroduce the hate speech legislation that was a dramatic failure in the last government and proposed by the previous minister for justice.

00:21:18.540 Basically said, we will not reintroduce.

00:21:20.660 They cut off a little bit.

00:21:21.500 Thank you.

00:21:51.480 So obviously this isn't ideal because, of course, there is still some hate speech legislation.

00:22:03.040 It's the sort of vintage hate speech legislation, the sort of kind that we have in Britain, really.

00:22:10.780 This is, of course, passed in 1980.

00:22:12.120 Aged like a bad wine.

00:22:13.560 It has, like vinegar.

00:22:15.760 This is the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, which acts as a form of hate speech legislation, but it's not nearly as extensive as what they wanted to amend based on the EU's pressure.

00:22:26.460 But it's interesting to me that they did push back against the EU and said, listen, you know, we've already got something.

00:22:32.420 So, you know, leave us alone, basically.

00:22:34.940 We're already really unpopular.

00:22:37.000 Do you want us in charge who are still sympathetic to the EU or do you want something worse to come in?

00:22:42.700 And I think it should be said that this is a very old problem, that you had the Race Relations Act in this country in 1965.

00:22:50.800 And then I think it was updated in 1974 and in the 80s and the 90s, and it culminated in the two Equalities Acts under Blair and then under Brown, 2006 and 2010.

00:23:03.060 So they've been sort of banning noticing for two generations now.

00:23:10.560 And they've been restricting people's ability to think for themselves and say what they think for two generations now.

00:23:17.620 But seemingly not restricting their ability to actually notice.

00:23:21.420 And not...

00:23:21.980 The legislation doesn't actually stop you recognising these things.

00:23:26.400 Yes, yes.

00:23:27.460 It's an excellent example of the Streisand effect as well, because, you know, if we did have a truly free society, pointing out these things perhaps wouldn't be as fun for a start.

00:23:38.300 Yes.

00:23:39.260 And is sort of sensationalist and interesting to people if it wasn't forbidden.

00:23:46.040 And it's sort of like, you know, Firas, you sort of understand this, that something being forbidden, you know, the forbidden fruit...

00:23:53.680 Makes it more tempting.

00:23:54.660 Exactly.

00:23:55.000 But there is also the sort of common good argument, which is for the good of the communities that are engaged in disproportionate amounts of bad behaviour, rather than giving them the shield that says you are immune from criticism and anybody who criticises you is guilty of hatred,

00:24:14.680 saying honestly, look, there is a Pakistani rape gang problem, there is a black crime problem, there is a nepotism problem with other groups. 0.88

00:24:25.980 And these need to be confronted, and that will allow peaceful coexistence more effectively.

00:24:31.860 I think being honest about these things and being transparent about these things would remove some of the sources of tension and conflict, if your intent is genuinely to have a more peaceful society.

00:24:45.640 But if your intent is to subjugate one community and elevate others, then you need this kind of legislation.

00:24:54.680 So the bad intent of the policy makers is baked in, or at least their short-sightedness.

00:25:01.100 Well, the interesting thing is, as well, that with these sorts of pieces of legislation, the ship has sort of sailed for most people with the integration argument, certainly for me, in that, yeah, I don't want integration anymore.

00:25:14.840 I don't think it's actually possible, looking at the data, looking at the evidence.

00:25:18.640 Not on those numbers, not on those numbers.

00:25:20.100 1%, 2%, we can talk about it.

00:25:22.160 And also depends where they come from, right?

00:25:23.600 20%? No.

00:25:23.840 I don't think someone from Somalia can come here and become just as British as you or I.

00:25:30.480 Culturally, at least, they'll never be genetically British. 1.00

00:25:33.080 In Lebanon, we talk about the Armenia example.

00:25:35.860 We had thousands and thousands and thousands of Armenians coming into the country.

00:25:39.780 No problem at all.

00:25:41.260 Very nice areas.

00:25:42.280 It began as a slum, their area. 0.97

00:25:44.480 Now it's actually quite prosperous, quite nice for the most part.

00:25:47.960 Very decent.

00:25:49.060 No conflict whatsoever.

00:25:51.080 And we had the Palestinians. 1.00

00:25:53.840 A bunch of civil wars, complete collapse in law and order, kidnapping, crime, da-da-da-da-da.

00:25:59.640 It's almost like not all people are the same.

00:26:02.620 It's as if values matter.

00:26:04.700 It's as if different groups of people actually are genuinely different.

00:26:09.180 And you can't legislate yourself out of that problem.

00:26:11.200 And you can't legislate differences away.

00:26:12.960 Not really.

00:26:14.100 But at the very least, you can be honest about them.

00:26:16.580 I mean, that's the first step.

00:26:17.680 Well, there's a rub.

00:26:19.280 Yes.

00:26:20.880 But I suppose I may as well call it here.

00:26:23.500 But I think that this is an actual positive story that shows that you can have influence.

00:26:29.220 And if you have a story that is worth international attention, you can put it out there.

00:26:35.780 And it can be picked up.

00:26:37.280 And it can have real-world consequences.

00:26:40.140 Albeit, rarely.

00:26:41.980 But the fact it's possible should reassure you all that change is possible in the end.

00:26:47.160 Yep.

00:26:47.760 Absolutely.

00:26:48.100 Absolutely.

00:26:50.380 Okay.

00:26:50.960 We do have...

00:26:51.960 Oh, sorry.

00:26:52.560 I was just going to say, I am encouraged by the arc that Elon seems to be going on.

00:26:58.580 Yes.

00:26:58.860 It's just the only concern, of course, is that you shouldn't need to rely on the most famous, powerful man in the world to just, by chance, pick up an issue or miss an issue.

00:27:09.440 Right.

00:27:10.640 It's difficult.

00:27:11.480 But we're picking up scraps here.

00:27:12.940 To be fair, sometimes his interventions don't do anything.

00:27:15.400 Like, you replied to one of my tweets over the weekend with just the word evil.

00:27:18.660 And he hasn't even invited you for drinks yet.

00:27:20.680 No, I have not received any money.

00:27:22.240 I didn't even get any noticeable change in my Twitter analytics.

00:27:26.040 Nothing.

00:27:27.320 It was just like, oh, Elon's replied to me.

00:27:29.160 Okay.

00:27:29.720 That's changed nothing.

00:27:30.620 Okay.

00:27:31.340 On with my day.

00:27:32.380 No pleasing some people.

00:27:33.820 Some people you can't just...

00:27:35.100 That's Random Name says, why are we surprised the EU would threaten Ireland when they directly interfered with Romania's election to prevent the right-wing president?

00:27:43.080 Isn't democracy great?

00:27:44.580 I know.

00:27:45.000 The EU is an enemy of the people of Europe.

00:27:49.000 And I'm amazed it's taking this long for people to realize.

00:27:51.500 But at least it's going in that direction.

00:27:54.560 Nobody ever complains about Japanese, Korean or Scandinavian immigrants.

00:27:57.880 I wonder why.

00:27:58.780 Well, certain Swedes can be a bit... 0.99

00:28:01.000 They have an explosive temper.

00:28:02.900 So, Blood for the Blood God, $100 there, sent us a video.

00:28:11.620 Let's see what that video is first.

00:28:14.940 Yes.

00:28:15.360 Sam Hyde calls out Hassan Piker.

00:28:19.220 Should we play that?

00:28:20.720 We know it's safe.

00:28:22.740 Yeah.

00:28:23.180 We've seen it many times.

00:28:25.120 Yeah, we'll play it at the end.

00:28:25.920 Okay, we'll play it at the end.

00:28:26.700 But thank you very much for that.

00:28:27.820 That was very kind of you.

00:28:29.060 And I'll make sure that that's played, because I like seeing it anyway.

00:28:32.900 Me too.

00:28:34.360 All right.

00:28:35.900 So, before continuing, please check out Stelius' course.

00:28:40.100 It's on courses.lotuseaters.com.

00:28:42.500 There is a webinar Thursday at 6, where you will have a chance to have a conversation with Stelius, ask a few questions.

00:28:50.360 It's a free webinar.

00:28:52.080 And if you like it, you should definitely sign up to the course.

00:28:54.400 And I definitely think it's worth it.

00:28:58.080 Unlike Josh's positive story about having an impact, I'm going to be on the slightly more depressing side of things.

00:29:06.020 Bring it back down to reality.

00:29:07.620 Yeah, I'm so sorry.

00:29:08.800 Anyway, so here, there was over the weekend something called the Muslim Impact for Britain or something like along these lines, which is a new outfit that's being founded by Anna Sarwar.

00:29:23.060 In case you don't know him, he is the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, I believe.

00:29:31.020 Yes, this looks like Scotland to me.

00:29:32.860 Yes, very much so.

00:29:34.260 It's the Scottish flag behind it.

00:29:35.540 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:29:37.580 And he's talking about gaining real power.

00:29:40.660 Let's listen to him for a second.

00:29:44.000 We will only truly gain real power if not if we just have more Pakistanis sitting in council chambers and parliaments, 1.00

00:29:52.080 but actually having more Pakistanis and celebrations sitting in the corridors of power making the decisions.

00:29:58.900 And that's where I'll end tonight.

00:30:00.740 So the idea here is just pretty brazen, you know, we want more power.

00:30:08.060 Therefore, more people of our ethnicity should be in the corridors of power who also, you know,

00:30:14.040 he obviously doesn't mean the beleaguered Christian minority in Pakistan.

00:30:18.280 No.

00:30:18.580 He obviously doesn't mean the beleaguered Ahmadi community in Pakistan.

00:30:21.820 He means Sunni Muslims.

00:30:23.220 I mean, I agree with the framework.

00:30:25.380 It just should be for the native population and not him. 1.00

00:30:30.160 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:30:32.820 And then there is his father speaking a little bit, which is also interesting.

00:30:37.440 His father used to be an MP.

00:30:39.040 So if you have any ideas about integration, I think this will kind of dispel it.

00:30:45.120 Because if you make it into Britain and manage to succeed enough to become a member of parliament,

00:30:52.040 then your son turns out to be a full-blown Islamist who was promoting the interests of his race and religion.

00:30:58.960 I think it's safe to say that there wasn't any successful integration.

00:31:02.620 And I think it's also safe to say that the problem wasn't really a lack of opportunities.

00:31:07.020 Well, one of the Manchester Arena bombers was a second-generation immigrant from his North—

00:31:15.080 I think they were North African, weren't they?

00:31:16.440 Asylum seekers.

00:31:17.900 So his family was firstly connected to the security services, and secondly was Libyan.

00:31:24.680 And they'd managed to get refuge running away from Gaddafi.

00:31:29.560 And the British state has a very messed up relationship with Islamist movements. 0.99

00:31:35.180 Extremely dodgy, extremely dirty.

00:31:37.020 They saw them as useful sometimes to the extent that the Saudis and Emiratis are constantly complaining to the British, 0.98

00:31:46.640 why are you allowing these lunatics to operate out of your territory?

00:31:51.240 And now that there's Qatar in the mix, they can be sent to Qatar. 0.99

00:31:54.880 They don't have to be in Britain.

00:31:56.360 But they have a pretty strong base here.

00:31:58.660 They have a really strong base here.

00:32:00.280 So here you have this guy saying that the Muslim friends of Labour will be at the heart of the government and pledging his loyalty to Pakistan.

00:32:11.160 Look!

00:32:11.680 Just what the working-class coal miners and workers who formed the Labour Party wanted.

00:32:18.240 Yes, exactly.

00:32:19.400 Exactly.

00:32:20.140 Exactly.

00:32:23.380 And he married his cousin to get to Britain.

00:32:28.660 So you can—

00:32:30.080 This is like the most UK with a Y story ever. 0.66

00:32:33.060 This is very much a UK story, isn't it?

00:32:35.720 This is very much a UK story.

00:32:38.260 And here he is saying the following.

00:32:41.640 And inshallah, time will come that there will be a law in place all over the world

00:32:48.640 that there can be no disrespect to our beloved holy prophet, Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa.

00:32:56.040 And he's adopted the accent so well, hasn't he?

00:32:58.240 Yes.

00:32:58.580 I was going to say that.

00:32:59.240 You've lived in Britain for how long and you've not even your accent?

00:33:03.040 Zero effort.

00:33:03.720 Yeah.

00:33:04.220 Zero effort.

00:33:04.560 Nothing.

00:33:05.020 That's how isolated you are.

00:33:06.420 In case you didn't hear him, he was saying that there is going to be a global law banning

00:33:10.600 any insults against the beloved prophet of Islam.

00:33:14.160 Here is an insult against the prophet of Islam.

00:33:16.560 He married a nine-year-old when he was 53.

00:33:19.240 That's repulsive.

00:33:20.940 He consummated the marriage with a nine-year-old according to Sunni Muslim sources. 0.99

00:33:25.360 That's disgusting. 0.99

00:33:27.360 Simply disgusting.

00:33:31.360 So the integration plan really isn't going very well.

00:33:34.500 And now you have the Muslim Impact Forum, uniting 200-plus global Muslim leaders who are ready

00:33:41.220 to shape the future, not be shaped by it.

00:33:45.320 And so in addition to the Muslim Council of Britain, the Muslim Forum of Britain, the sort

00:33:51.220 of Muslim network in the civil service, etc., etc., these guys are coming up with a rather

00:33:58.220 novel idea of building an independent political movement in Britain.

00:34:02.840 And it should be noted here that, you know, in reform, you have Zia Yusuf.

00:34:07.800 In the conservatives, you have a Muslim network.

00:34:10.220 You have the Muslim Friends of Labour, who are quite influential, quite popular.

00:34:14.860 You have the Greens, the homosexual, Zach Polanski, having Muaddin Ali as his deputy. 0.99

00:34:21.980 And now you have Jezbollah, basically Jeremy Corbyn's party in association with a bunch of Muslim MPs. 0.94

00:34:31.160 And they've also infiltrated the apparatus of government as well in the Home Office, which, of course, is responsible for things like deportation.

00:34:39.120 There's a network of over 700 different Muslims that are lobbying to recruit more Muslims into the Home Office.

00:34:44.580 Absolutely.

00:34:44.960 And also, they have played a significant part in reducing attention to the Muslim threat of terror, which, of course, since 2005 is over 98% of all terror-related fatalities were from Islamically-motivated terror attacks.

00:35:02.840 Exactly.

00:35:03.160 And the establishment's only answer is just, you just have to live with these people.

00:35:08.800 It's part and parcel of living in a diverse, multicultural city.

00:35:11.980 It's just the way things are now.

00:35:14.060 Look, and I want to warn against the impression that this is disorganized.

00:35:21.640 And to explain that, there is this wonderful document here.

00:35:25.060 It's from 1991.

00:35:26.080 It's a document by the Muslim Brotherhood in North America explaining their strategy for North America.

00:35:33.060 And you can bet that the same strategy is being pursued in Europe and in Britain, obviously, and in anywhere else where the Muslims are a minority. 0.96

00:35:42.340 I imagine that because they're writing in Arabic as well, they presume that it's selected for a specific audience that's most empathetic.

00:35:48.900 So they're going to be more candid with what their intentions are.

00:35:50.540 So there's a translated version at the bottom.

00:35:52.700 Okay.

00:35:53.080 But I'm not clear if they are the ones who translated it.

00:35:55.420 Okay.

00:35:55.700 Because I went through the Arabic part.

00:35:57.680 I didn't go through the English part.

00:35:59.820 The strategic objective adopted by the Shura Council and the Organizational Council of 1987 is to empower Islam in North America by founding an active, effective Islamist movement that is settled and led by the Muslim Brotherhood,

00:36:18.280 which adopts, which adopts the causes of Muslims locally and globally, works on expanding the base of committed Muslims, and aims to unify Muslims and proposes Islam as a civilizational alternative to support the Islamic global state wherever it is.

00:36:38.560 So they start off from the beginning, saying that this is a totalitarian project to build a global Islamic state with their presence in North America as sort of a small part of it.

00:36:52.000 It's like a vanguard, which is how the Muslim Brotherhood always has seen itself. 1.00

00:36:57.220 Everybody agrees, according to this document, that our aim is to indigenize and empower slash gain control for Islam. 0.89

00:37:10.880 So they use this word called tamkin, which means a combination of enablement, empowerment, establishment, gaining control over the levers of power.

00:37:21.580 That's the meaning of the word.

00:37:22.920 And it's the translation is a bit vague, but it's a really good word.

00:37:28.000 The objective is to do this in this part of the world and presumably also in Europe, because other leading clerics have pretty much been saying as much.

00:37:36.840 And there is a multi-step process.

00:37:39.320 First, to make Islam a part of whatever country that it resides in. 1.00

00:37:44.340 Second, to establish firm institutions, which is what you're seeing now.

00:37:51.060 Third, to stabilize Islam and to make sure that it can't be challenged, essentially.

00:37:57.240 Fourth, out of a five-stage plan, to make Islam, to give Islam control over the spirits and minds and lives of the peoples of the countries in which it operates. 0.99

00:38:11.980 So it is sort of following a playbook of, say, a Lenin, in that they want to become a vanguard.

00:38:20.840 And they say, obviously, you know, we won't have mass support, but over time, through strict governance, we change people's minds.

00:38:28.620 Exactly.

00:38:29.440 And then it goes on to give other details about how they will build alliances with different groups, etc., etc.

00:38:35.440 Hence their flirtation with Zach Polanski. 0.99

00:38:38.040 Different groups who are dumb enough to take them. 1.00

00:38:40.080 Yes, yes. 0.99

00:38:42.020 And you have to remember that whenever the leftists and the Islamists were allies, they ended up trying to murder each other. 0.87

00:38:49.700 And in Egypt, it was the sort of leftists that murdered them first.

00:38:53.700 And then the Islamists murdered the Egyptian president, blah, blah, blah. 0.63

00:38:56.860 And in Iran, the Islamists sort of wiped out every single leftist. 0.58

00:39:00.760 So, Zach, if you're listening, and I don't think you are, the consequences are going to be severe for you, mate.

00:39:10.000 And this is not a threat.

00:39:11.080 This is just what happened in history to leftists who allied with Muslims. 0.82

00:39:14.160 And then they go on to say how confident they are in their position here.

00:39:21.900 And I think this is worth listening to.

00:39:24.840 In this country, there are 4 million Muslims, and that number is growing fast.

00:39:29.360 But of those 4 million, 50% are under the age of 25.

00:39:33.160 So, the implication here is that the youth bulge amongst the Muslims gives them an advantage in any kind of military confrontation. 0.87

00:39:49.180 Because the British native population is aging rapidly, whereas the Muslim population is extremely young. 0.98

00:39:58.180 So, what he's suggesting here is that the future is theirs one way or another.

00:40:03.740 And it doesn't really matter whether or not they're in high-paying jobs, or they're on benefits, or whatever the case may be.

00:40:11.920 Because ultimately, the will of the state will already be sympathetic to them, because the previous generations of Muslims have spent plenty of time infiltrating it and characterizing it for their own system. 0.97

00:40:25.620 And the important part is that this is part of a generational effort.

00:40:29.920 Yes.

00:40:30.600 This isn't accidental.

00:40:32.240 And this preceded the era of mass migration.

00:40:35.820 Like, the planning for this isn't sort of, oh, they found an opportunity when Tony Blair came to power.

00:40:41.460 No, no, no.

00:40:42.660 The security services probably knew that these guys have been writing this kind of document.

00:40:48.460 Because these documents date back to the early 90s.

00:40:51.400 And because the Muslim Brotherhood has never been shy about any of this stuff. 1.00

00:40:55.000 And in the RealPolitik episode at 3, I'll give a little more examples and a few more quotes from leading thinkers of Jama'at, the Islami, and the Muslim Brotherhood about their plans for the future.

00:41:07.680 So, they've known all of this.

00:41:09.220 Some of this stuff has been out there since the 1920s.

00:41:12.120 Some of this stuff has been out there since the 1930s.

00:41:15.400 They've known all of this.

00:41:17.420 And yet, Tony Blair decided that it's more important to rub the noses of the right and diversity than to actually have some compassion for his own people.

00:41:28.740 That's treason.

00:41:30.700 That's treason.

00:41:31.540 Well, it's not, because they abolished the treason laws.

00:41:34.120 Oh, yes.

00:41:34.760 Well, yeah.

00:41:35.620 So, it can't be treason.

00:41:36.500 So, let's listen to a little bit more of this.

00:41:39.300 I would say hand on heart now that we are at a tipping point in this country, and it's reflected in other countries as well.

00:41:49.680 We either try and do something different to try and self-organize Muslims, to represent ourselves better, to use our resources better, and to influence the countries that we live in better than we have done already. 0.76

00:42:06.860 Brother Hamza is a relatively rare and unique political talent.

00:42:12.040 But, actually, we need many more people like him at the top of government in every government in this country across the four nations and in other governments that can influence, sit at the top table, and make a difference on behalf of the Muslims.

00:42:24.600 You see, this is the thing as well, right?

00:42:27.420 Because Hamza Yusuf is a guy who, you know, like many of them, just never shut up about Palestine.

00:42:32.760 No.

00:42:32.980 Right?

00:42:33.580 Because he wants your sympathy and your concern for his ethno-religious grievance.

00:42:38.940 Yes.

00:42:39.700 But, my God, if you dare suggest that he should have any for yours.

00:42:44.320 Nope.

00:42:44.840 Not an inch.

00:42:45.640 Not an inch.

00:42:46.460 And it's very important, the language here.

00:42:48.940 In the countries that they live in. 0.63

00:42:51.080 Yes.

00:42:51.380 In the countries that they live in. 0.63

00:42:55.100 So, there are several admissions here.

00:42:58.180 The most important one is that it's not their country. 0.97

00:43:01.320 No matter how much Hamza Yusuf will say that he's actually an indigenous Scot, he doesn't even think of himself that way.

00:43:08.380 And the people who support him don't think of him that way.

00:43:10.140 I agree with that point, to be fair.

00:43:13.460 But he wouldn't, if you were to say it to him, he'd deny it.

00:43:17.280 If his friends were to say it to him, he wouldn't object.

00:43:21.380 So, it's only racist when you say it.

00:43:24.140 Well, that's all right.

00:43:24.860 It doesn't bother me anymore.

00:43:26.280 Exactly.

00:43:27.100 Exactly.

00:43:27.580 Like, the word racist is the most devalued.

00:43:30.420 It's worth about as much as a Zimbabwean dollar.

00:43:32.920 The word racist is worth about as much as a Zimbabwean dollar.

00:43:35.820 That's what it is.

00:43:36.600 Calling you racist is not going to get rid of your concern about this.

00:43:40.800 No, no, no.

00:43:41.320 Not in any shape or form.

00:43:42.860 Not in any shape or form.

00:43:43.980 But the statement here is that there's a tipping point, and our identity is as Muslims, according to the Muslim Impact Forum.

00:43:55.180 Their primary identity isn't as Brits, Scots, Germans, French.

00:44:01.360 They might carry these passports, and I carry one of them too, but they sort of admit in internal discussion that their primary identity is Islam.

00:44:13.260 And the only reason that the Muslim movement in Britain is sort of split is that it's because it's split between the South Asians and the Arabs.

00:44:20.040 So, they have the same ideology, but the South Asians have the Jamaat-Islami-associated movements and a few others, and the Arabs have Muslim Brotherhood mainly.

00:44:28.760 Right. 0.93

00:44:28.880 So, it's sort of, you know, it's because the Arabs are ridiculously racist towards the South Asians. 1.00

00:44:35.300 It's... 0.97

00:44:35.740 That's the only reason for it.

00:44:36.780 It just baffles me, right, because as well, when you say, like, they obviously just put their religion before the country, and you're just faced with, yeah, but why would it be otherwise, right? 0.53

00:44:45.880 When the Home Secretary, Shabam Mahmood, says, oh, Islam is just, like, my absolute guiding principle, and informs everything I do, it's like, yeah, I would expect it to be.

00:44:56.300 Yes.

00:44:56.520 Right. 0.99

00:44:57.380 But why are we dumb enough to allow it, right? 0.99

00:45:00.760 Because you've lost faith in Christianity and become liberals instead. 0.96

00:45:07.080 Because under the rules of liberalism, religion is a matter of opinion rather than the defining aspect of your identity.

00:45:17.040 So, Shabam Mahmood is much more honest than a liberal because she will say that my values, my beliefs, my political objectives come from my religion.

00:45:26.520 Which, you know, I agree.

00:45:28.520 Makes sense.

00:45:29.020 That's true for me as well.

00:45:30.180 Right.

00:45:30.540 You know, that's true for me as well.

00:45:32.280 It's the liberal assumption that, no, no, no, no, no, it doesn't really matter what religion you are.

00:45:37.000 We can all work together for GDP.

00:45:39.640 That's the real God there.

00:45:43.080 That's the real God.

00:45:43.960 Exactly.

00:45:44.820 And you cannot worship two gods, God and Mahmood. 0.87

00:45:48.460 You cannot worship God and Mahmood. 1.00

00:45:50.420 That's the point of it.

00:45:52.000 And these people simply worship Mahmood. 0.50

00:45:54.520 There are two interesting things about this that I noticed.

00:45:56.680 The first of which is that they highlight Hamza Yusuf as some sort of success story, which is sort of reassuring.

00:46:02.300 Because if he's their best, then they're not doing particularly well.

00:46:05.520 And it's also interesting that they're talking about cleaning up their act.

00:46:08.420 Because, of course, this ties nicely to what you previously mentioned about them bringing in more Pakistanis.

00:46:14.960 And I don't think there's any group that has done more to radicalize people towards the notion of remigration, mass deportation, whatever you want to call it, than Pakistanis in Britain. 0.88

00:46:24.840 Yes.

00:46:25.080 Because they've been so corrosive to our society in terms of following the law, in terms of draining resources, in terms of being cultural narcissists and just propagating shamelessly their own way of life.

00:46:39.680 They're like the opposite of a model immigrant. 1.00

00:46:42.640 Exactly.

00:46:42.960 But it speaks to when the way that they frame it here as well speaks to the fact that they recognize that this is a race against time.

00:46:50.280 Yes.

00:46:50.660 Right?

00:46:51.240 Yes.

00:46:51.580 That there is a clock and every single day it ticks.

00:46:55.080 Demographics.

00:46:56.000 Absolutely.

00:46:56.760 Absolutely.

00:46:57.640 Absolutely.

00:47:01.200 But you have to remember that, again, emphasizing the point that this is not organic.

00:47:05.440 So two of the supporters of this are obviously Hamza Yusuf and I think Nas Shah.

00:47:09.700 And here they are meeting with a bunch of Muslim donors for Gaza in Turkey.

00:47:16.420 Now, Turkey is the sort of vanguard state of the Muslim Brotherhood. 0.91

00:47:20.160 It's the one major power where the Muslim Brotherhood actually reigns and comfortably so. 1.00

00:47:25.400 Because Erdogan's whole world view is sort of informed by this need to Islamize society and to lead the Muslim world and to bring Islam into a position where it can challenge the West. 0.94

00:47:39.960 So this is what influenced...

00:47:41.460 Like a neo-Ottoman empire?

00:47:42.460 Yes.

00:47:43.140 Very much so.

00:47:43.880 Very much so.

00:47:44.520 So his first national security advisor and then a foreign secretary and then prime minister, before they had a massive falling out, wrote a book explaining how Turkey was going to lead the entire Muslim world against the West.

00:47:59.260 And against everybody else, essentially.

00:48:01.500 And that's what qualified him to become national security advisor.

00:48:06.440 So this is a sort of, you know, if they're hobnobbing with Erdogan, you can bet that they are acting on what they are saying, which is that their primary identity is Muslim. 0.54

00:48:20.600 And therefore not British. 0.96

00:48:22.000 And you have to remember that this is happening in a terrible context.

00:48:28.920 You have guys from the Afghan military who are running around Britain, calling people who ask them, what are you up to, racist?

00:48:35.720 This is a guy walking around with literally an Afghan military uniform.

00:48:42.340 That's not worth much judging.

00:48:43.060 And he's in one of those hotels in Luton.

00:48:45.180 It's not worth much judging from their performance in the actual conflict itself.

00:48:48.940 Well, they should be surrendering.

00:48:50.600 I've seen them doing jumping jacks.

00:48:51.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:52.460 But you can bet that the Taliban guys, so the special forces guys were good. 1.00

00:48:55.960 Yes, of course.

00:48:57.240 And you can bet the Taliban guys are much better. 1.00

00:49:00.300 And the same Afghans were also working as people smugglers, as GB News reveals.

00:49:09.400 So they've, the people that were trained by the British in Afghanistan are now working as people smugglers, sending more Afghans into Britain. 0.99

00:49:19.420 And I think we had a story this weekend where basically the Taliban would issue you with a letter threatening your life if you paid them £40.

00:49:27.880 And then you could take that letter to the home office and say, can I please have asylum?

00:49:32.520 I was thinking about getting one just for bragging rights.

00:49:36.320 Just like, here, the Taliban have threatened me.

00:49:38.140 I'm going to frame it.

00:49:40.700 No, I'm joking, of course.

00:49:42.200 I wouldn't get that money.

00:49:42.840 These guys are, the fact that you have, in addition to that, the tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers who were settled under Ben Wallace and Robert Jenrick in Britain really shows what a disaster all of this is. 0.98

00:50:02.720 That basically, not only are they building a political organization, but they've also had an army transplanted into Britain.

00:50:11.700 And we saw the same with the Muslim Defense League, who were willing to organize very quickly and themed rather thuggish and rather prone to violence. 0.71

00:50:20.640 And you have these people bragging about how they're going to be taking power, but noticing any of this is racist.

00:50:28.420 And we probably committed a bunch of hate speech offenses in this brief segment.

00:50:35.260 I'm going to be covering this in more detail and committing a few more hate crimes at three.

00:50:41.800 But in the meantime, maybe we can just sort of watch something entertaining or sort of think of something entertaining.

00:50:51.400 Ah, the video on this is gone.

00:50:52.540 You had a bunch of trans activists attacking J.K. Rowling.

00:50:58.920 Strange definition of entertainment.

00:51:00.980 Yes.

00:51:01.940 They were attacking an event at which she was speaking.

00:51:06.040 The one bit of good news is that if the Islamists win, that kind of stuff will be over. 1.00

00:51:11.360 That's true.

00:51:12.480 But the funny part will be is that these kinds of people would have also voted for it.

00:51:18.360 That's a very dark bit of sugar for the pill there, isn't it?

00:51:21.220 I do what I can. 0.97

00:51:22.960 Well, this is why, you know, in many cases, masturbation is the kindest option, isn't it? 0.90

00:51:29.160 It is indeed. 0.91

00:51:29.840 For everyone.

00:51:30.420 The most humane.

00:51:31.540 It just is.

00:51:32.800 Yep.

00:51:34.520 Let me read a couple of comments.

00:51:37.400 Gimli O'Gloin.

00:51:38.960 They call you racist bigot at every other buzzword, but they never call you a liar or wrong.

00:51:44.200 Says it all pretty much.

00:51:45.340 Yeah.

00:51:45.980 Yeah.

00:51:46.580 I mean, I see it as encouragement these days.

00:51:48.940 More or less.

00:51:50.000 It's very kind of you.

00:51:51.040 More or less.

00:51:52.060 You practice in the mirror.

00:51:54.700 That's a random name.

00:51:55.780 Says Tommy Robinson is currently in court.

00:51:57.900 I know he was supposed to have a jury trial, but apparently that is no longer the case.

00:52:01.820 Not looking good, but at least we're not speaking German. 1.00

00:52:05.020 Yeah.

00:52:07.860 Sigil Stone 17 says, speaking of Elon and replies, you see that guy that complained about low payouts

00:52:13.720 and a Twitter employee gave him an additional 10 grand?

00:52:16.280 Wow.

00:52:16.560 Immediately made me think it's a big club and you ain't in it.

00:52:20.180 No, I haven't seen that.

00:52:21.180 I don't know if it's true.

00:52:22.380 Watching Elon, your payouts are low.

00:52:23.860 Please give me 10 grand.

00:52:25.780 Thank you.

00:52:26.440 He's a big fan, Elon.

00:52:27.680 He really is.

00:52:28.400 I am.

00:52:28.600 Also from Sigil Stone, so when's the UK's obligatory Islam civil war over? 0.97

00:52:35.280 Who was the first caliph of Britannistan?

00:52:37.820 Sadiq Khan or Charles Mohammed Windsor?

00:52:40.080 Ah, but the beautiful part about it is that he's referring to the Sunni-Shia split very cleverly. 0.97

00:52:48.200 The hapsification says, I saw Carl got caught with Sura 2 AI.

00:52:53.660 Sura 2 AI.

00:52:54.720 Yes.

00:52:55.080 I did warn everyone last week.

00:52:56.820 Yeah.

00:52:57.040 Yeah, it's really convincing.

00:52:58.580 It's really convincing.

00:52:59.880 I thought it at first.

00:53:01.360 I just by chance didn't quote tweet it.

00:53:03.620 Although it's crazy how believable it's all starting to look really.

00:53:08.080 I've not seen this.

00:53:10.000 Is this like videos or something?

00:53:12.280 Yeah, it was like, what was it, Jake Paul or something, walking around Leicester.

00:53:18.100 Being like, my God, there are a lot of Indians here, but it was all fake. 1.00

00:53:21.000 It was all AI.

00:53:21.940 Why would Jake Paul go to Leicester?

00:53:25.380 I suppose.

00:53:26.060 Some of his biggest fans are there.

00:53:27.720 He's got quite a swarthy fan base, does Jake Paul.

00:53:30.900 Fair enough.

00:53:31.420 Well, I'll tell you what.

00:53:33.300 Shall we bookend this podcast with going back to the good news?

00:53:36.980 Let's go back to the good news.

00:53:37.660 Let's go back with a positive, shall we?

00:53:40.080 So, castles.

00:53:42.060 Now, obviously, besides just being all over Europe, of course, castles, from my point of

00:53:49.320 view, are just a fundamental part of the beauty of the British landscape, right?

00:53:55.800 You're never actually that far away from a castle, especially if you live along the Welsh 1.00

00:54:01.220 or Scottish border for historical view.

00:54:03.480 I wonder why that might be.

00:54:05.000 Right.

00:54:05.640 Strange.

00:54:05.840 And every one of these castles is a work of wonder.

00:54:09.480 And whether they're made of Tudor brick or Gothic stone, right, they all speak to something

00:54:15.400 about where we've come from.

00:54:17.440 And actually, you know, the fundamental link of the fact that these islands are ours, right?

00:54:22.960 And that our ancestors built these.

00:54:25.540 And obviously, they all have a great story.

00:54:28.300 But beyond, obviously, architectural beauty as well, there is also the case for moral beauty

00:54:35.220 and a return to classical values.

00:54:38.120 And that's why I'd just like to draw your attention to Stelios' new course here, the

00:54:42.720 Introduction to Ancient Greek Virtue Ethics.

00:54:45.600 So, there's a free webinar, the second one, at 6pm on Thursday.

00:54:50.200 If you'd like to go and sign up for that, then Stelios will be here to take all of your

00:54:55.160 questions about the course.

00:54:56.800 And if you're interested in the course itself, it's on the website.

00:55:00.140 It's been doing very well.

00:55:01.280 I've seen comments online with people being very, very happy with it.

00:55:04.380 So, definitely do check that out if it's something you feel can help improve your life.

00:55:11.040 So, we have here, there was a great epoch with Bo and Shadowversity a while back where

00:55:19.000 they were just talking about some of their absolute favourite castles, right?

00:55:22.800 And how could you not?

00:55:24.020 Because I feel like the thing about castles as well is that they're kind of remarkable

00:55:30.500 and leave you in awe whatever age you are, right?

00:55:34.100 Even as, you know, an old man, which I'm not yet, you know, they leave you, you know, 0.86

00:55:39.240 with that feeling of wonder.

00:55:41.180 But also, as a young kid as well, right?

00:55:43.600 I mean, you know, when you think of, like, how excited the kids got about, like, the castle

00:55:49.460 in Harry Potter or something, it almost feels otherworldly.

00:55:53.500 It feels like something that couldn't have been created today.

00:55:57.300 I only went to a castle recently.

00:55:58.640 I went to Warwick Castle for the first time.

00:56:00.480 And I really liked it.

00:56:01.860 Right.

00:56:02.120 And I mean, I enjoyed it probably more as an adult than I did as a kid.

00:56:06.000 And even as a kid, you know, I'd be going in there looking at the suits of armour and

00:56:09.320 the swords, just like, this is great.

00:56:11.040 Exactly.

00:56:11.660 They are gorgeous, aren't they?

00:56:13.280 Yeah.

00:56:14.060 So, I'd like to, as you say with Warwick, I'd just like to talk very, very, as brief as

00:56:19.560 I can.

00:56:20.000 I won't do a poot and then go on for 30 minutes.

00:56:21.960 But I'd like to talk to you a bit about one of my favourite castles, which is Scarborough.

00:56:26.460 Now, on the face of it, it's not the most impressive.

00:56:29.340 You can see it's got a bit missing.

00:56:31.780 But the roof has definitely fallen off and half of a wall.

00:56:36.180 But I'll explain why that was.

00:56:37.960 So, the point is that this castle was built with the money from the treasury during the

00:56:43.880 reign of Henry II, right?

00:56:45.920 John then went on to spend an inordinate amount of money on it, given that he did like to spend

00:56:52.040 people's taxes quite frivolously.

00:56:54.700 And he spent more on Scarborough Castle than any other castle during his reign, right?

00:57:00.200 And an extra, the King's Hall was built beside it, and the castle continued to go through

00:57:06.540 different stages of repair and garrisoning, you know, as the medieval era went on.

00:57:12.120 And then eventually you got to the English Civil War, where the royalists held up inside

00:57:17.540 the castle.

00:57:18.420 And the reason that there is only half a castle there is because the parliamentarians brought

00:57:23.580 the cannons along and shot the castle in half.

00:57:26.900 That's the story of a lot of castles around here.

00:57:31.140 Like, a few where I grew up were used and damaged in the Civil War.

00:57:35.040 I know Donington Castle near Newbury has a large chunk missing because it was besieged for a

00:57:41.400 long time in the Civil War.

00:57:43.420 Yeah.

00:57:43.900 And many such cases.

00:57:45.380 So, there's multiple layers of history here.

00:57:47.960 And the fact that it played a significant part in our Civil War and our medieval history

00:57:51.880 is amazing that there's this continuity and, you know, you can still see it today.

00:57:57.760 You can still see how it was and walk the battlements.

00:58:00.560 It tells a story.

00:58:01.580 You can talk about the, also the stability of this country afterwards, because I don't

00:58:06.980 think Britain has any of the castles with the geometric points.

00:58:12.420 So, in the continent, to solve the artillery problem, they would change the walls of the

00:58:19.880 castle from being circular to having a bunch of diagonal points, meaning that they could

00:58:26.880 hit you with artillery just as well and even more effectively, whereas they would push you

00:58:31.960 back, preventing you from hitting the main castle.

00:58:34.480 So, the fact that this development wasn't imported into Britain, as far as I know, meant that you

00:58:42.960 had a much longer period of stability where adjusting your own castles to the new mode of

00:58:49.580 warfare with artillery wasn't actually necessary.

00:58:51.700 And I would also like to make a sort of, uh, blood feud point of...

00:58:59.700 Well, I hope this was supposed to be the good news section.

00:59:03.060 These foreign Norman castles coming over here, building them with stone.

00:59:06.800 Back in my day, it used to be a hill fort.

00:59:09.200 It used to be earthworks and spikes made of wood.

00:59:11.760 Yes.

00:59:12.540 Well, so you can see here, even as far, on this hill where Scarborough Castle stands,

00:59:16.940 there used to be an old, uh, Roman signal tower, obviously artistic impression of it.

00:59:22.120 This is all that stands left today.

00:59:23.620 There was also a chapel built on that hill in the year 1000, uh, which has since disappeared.

00:59:29.280 And then, so ever since the, uh, the civil war, the rest of Scarborough Castle just stood

00:59:35.160 there until 1914, when the Germans, uh, came over with their warships and bombarded Scarborough 0.94

00:59:42.620 and Whitby and rest of that coastline, uh, towards the end of, um, 1914.

00:59:48.200 And again, the castle sustained more and more damage.

00:59:51.360 And now, of course, as we find the castle today, it is, uh, you pay, uh, X amount of money,

00:59:57.480 15 pounds, I think it was when last time I went in there.

01:00:01.040 And of course, you're free to go and look around it.

01:00:03.960 So what is the point with all of this?

01:00:05.920 Why am I talking about it?

01:00:07.700 Well, the fact of the matter is that as I give an account of my personal experience and

01:00:12.760 the history with Scarborough Castle, so it is that every single castle in the British

01:00:19.100 Isles has its own story.

01:00:21.200 It reveals something about our history, about the wars, about the revelry, about the feasts,

01:00:26.640 about the people that lived in them and the ideas and way of life that gave birth to them

01:00:32.440 in the first place.

01:00:33.420 And Scarborough isn't, for some reason, even on that, so that is an incomplete list as

01:00:38.540 you see it there.

01:00:39.600 Would you be able to scroll down to Devon and Cornwall?

01:00:41.520 I'll see if my favourite is down there.

01:00:42.960 Are you talking about the one in the middle of the, uh, go on then, Samson.

01:00:47.620 Thank you.

01:00:48.300 He's wrestling it from me.

01:00:50.440 It does have Tintagel Castle.

01:00:52.180 Yes.

01:00:52.300 That's my favourite castle.

01:00:53.540 Yeah, I really want to go visit it.

01:00:54.960 Oh, it's lovely.

01:00:56.060 The coastline is absolutely gorgeous around there and it's on this big island.

01:00:59.940 It has, you can see why people see it as the base of the Arthurian legend because it's

01:01:05.460 on this island.

01:01:06.080 It feels magical.

01:01:07.740 Very much recommend people go there, although the entry fee to see the castle is very expensive.

01:01:12.840 But what you can do is stand opposite it and see all of the castle and not have to pay

01:01:17.140 any money.

01:01:18.160 So.

01:01:18.940 Which is more your style.

01:01:20.500 It is, yeah.

01:01:21.340 Far more your style.

01:01:22.420 So, as I point out, you have many extraordinary castles in the British Isles and, of course,

01:01:28.380 all over Europe.

01:01:29.500 But the point that I want to get to, and this is something that I've, um, sort of had subconsciously

01:01:35.980 in the back of my mind for a long time now, is that though these castles are remarkable,

01:01:41.220 they are existing kind of in an end of history state now, where they are actually just walk

01:01:49.580 around museums, right?

01:01:51.840 Everything that I said about Scarborough Castle, and don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting

01:01:55.780 we should start shelling them again or anything like that, right?

01:01:59.140 To put a bit of life back in the history or anything like that.

01:02:02.780 But what I am saying is that, um, they kind of exist in the abstract, right?

01:02:06.840 They're, they're not, they're just something that you might go and have a weekend looking

01:02:11.200 around, right?

01:02:12.560 When you go away for a bit.

01:02:14.260 And so they're not part of a living history, right?

01:02:18.400 There's no reason to think in the current state of a castle, it will ever now be anything

01:02:23.320 more than just ruins to walk around.

01:02:25.780 And so actually a castle that, historically speaking, would have been very, very close

01:02:31.380 to the center of a community in a medieval period is now detached from it.

01:02:37.720 And it leaves us with this place where the castles are a remarkable expression of Christian

01:02:44.340 architecture, and they're also falling into decay.

01:02:48.380 And as people are slowly, you know, attendance to these sorts of things with us a little bit,

01:02:56.020 um, there is actually some good news here, which is that, uh, Nathan Hood, a very, very good

01:03:02.260 man, and, uh, his works all around on YouTube, where he talks about, uh, Arthurian legends,

01:03:08.400 Tolkien, and just what is fantastic work.

01:03:11.820 He has set up the Pendragon Foundation, which is going to be a voluntary organization, uh,

01:03:20.760 dedicated to basically restoring Britain's strongholds, right?

01:03:25.800 It's about, and by restoring, I should clarify what I mean by that.

01:03:29.980 I don't mean, you know, hiring the stonemasons and, like, rebuilding Scarborough Castle brick

01:03:35.640 by brick, but what it does mean is where castles can be preserved, and, you know, where a decaying

01:03:43.900 castle might be in the center of a town, there is a wonderful opportunity there to re-center

01:03:48.960 the castle within the community itself.

01:03:51.440 And actually, through this way, it works on many, many levels.

01:03:56.800 It roots people back in their actual history, right?

01:03:59.860 And it takes the castle away from being something abstract that you just merely visit to something

01:04:05.720 that actually is, again, at the heart of the community.

01:04:09.580 And also, what's more, uh, there's a YouTube channel with the Pendragon Foundation, where Nathan

01:04:17.180 explains a lot of this very, very well.

01:04:20.420 And we also have a magazine that will be coming out at five o'clock today.

01:04:26.440 And I believe, so, featuring contributions from, wait, Josh Zerm?

01:04:31.440 That's me.

01:04:32.540 What?

01:04:33.120 I'm in this.

01:04:33.740 What are you doing in there?

01:04:35.180 Well, I like a good castle, does me.

01:04:36.820 Um, no, I wrote about the importance of preserving your history, and I spent a long time refining

01:04:43.120 a very, um, concise paragraph on, and I tried to put it in a nice poetic and moving way.

01:04:50.820 I was very happy with it.

01:04:52.080 Um, just the importance of doing these sorts of things.

01:04:54.980 And I think that having an appreciation for one's country and one's history is basically

01:05:01.080 foundational to preserving it into the future, and that we should all have a stake in trying

01:05:07.580 to preserve our history, because there's a certain beauty there.

01:05:11.060 It's not just interesting, but we have an obligation to basically steward these things

01:05:17.480 into the future for future generations.

01:05:19.420 If we neglect it, if we go out of our way to ignore it, perhaps, then we're doing a

01:05:26.560 disservice to people who come after us, and we are part of that continuity.

01:05:30.660 And I think that castles in particular bring this into mind, because they're things that

01:05:35.120 symbolise the life and death of our ancestors, basically.

01:05:40.000 And I think that, um, having a reverence for one's ancestors is, is a good thing.

01:05:44.900 Yeah.

01:05:45.720 I couldn't agree more.

01:05:46.860 I couldn't agree more.

01:05:47.500 So, revering ancestors' good.

01:05:49.820 Yes.

01:05:50.200 Yes.

01:05:50.980 Uh, and so we have this, um, fantastic organisation.

01:05:55.480 And if I just go back to the website, actually, you can see here, uh, Britain's castles once

01:06:00.040 protected us, and now they can inspire us, help us turn these ancient strongholds into centres

01:06:05.360 of culture, commerce, and community.

01:06:08.540 So, um, before you write off their military relevance, the, one of the greatest crusader castles

01:06:15.620 in South Lebanon ended up getting used by the Palestinians and by the Israelis, um, and was

01:06:22.360 a pretty much active military site up until the year 2000.

01:06:26.280 And then the crusader castles in Syria also ended up being used by the insurgents and by the

01:06:34.840 government. 0.85

01:06:35.740 So the kind of stonemasonry that is involved in those is ridiculous. 0.75

01:06:42.220 Um, it takes more than an old cannonball to get one, to sort of go through one.

01:06:47.620 Um, and they are still, they were still militarily useful in modern warfare.

01:06:52.360 Right.

01:06:52.720 At least against insurgents and fighting insurgencies.

01:06:56.200 So, um, like it's not over for castles.

01:07:00.320 These things are still valuable.

01:07:02.200 And so if you would, uh, like to volunteer or just be merely interested in what it has to

01:07:08.100 offer, there's a, as you can see here, a list of opportunities, rebuilding, uh, with the

01:07:12.940 supervision of industry experts, volunteers participate in the restoration process by

01:07:18.220 taking part in construction work, supercharging our efforts to reestablish these magnificent

01:07:22.860 and historical buildings, and they can develop their own craftsmanship on these unique projects.

01:07:28.280 There's also a matter of research, finance, media, which I guess I'm kind of doing today.

01:07:32.960 Uh, you also have events and engagement.

01:07:36.520 And so if you want to subscribe or make a one-time donation, that's also an option up

01:07:42.220 there because as you say, Josh, there are inheritance.

01:07:45.820 And if we don't look after them, uh, the new arrivals certainly won't be interested in

01:07:51.080 doing anything of the kind.

01:07:52.340 I would also like to point out that I contributed to the magazine voluntarily and they're not

01:07:56.440 paying me to say this.

01:07:57.520 I just think there are a bunch of good people doing a good thing and I wanted to help them

01:08:01.440 out. And I think that it is great that you're drawing attention to this because I think it's

01:08:05.940 a very important thing. And I think that, um, no matter what your politics are, you know,

01:08:10.360 obviously we talk about politics most of the time. I think most people can recognize that

01:08:15.240 preserving your history is important. We might disagree on what it might mean. We might disagree,

01:08:19.880 you know, we might, some might call it racist. I don't know if anyone's calling a castle racist.

01:08:23.680 I think it's like a shouting at a brick.

01:08:25.280 I hope so. But, um, it, these things I think have undeniable value in them. And I think that

01:08:36.080 what they're doing is very necessary as well because many of the institutions like, uh, English

01:08:42.140 heritage and the national trust aren't necessarily doing well. And they're also subverting, uh,

01:08:47.660 things with politics. And so having a safe pair of hands to deal with our handoff to the next

01:08:55.040 generation is very, very important. Right. And I think, sorry, just briefly, castles also reflect

01:09:02.960 a certain kind of order in society that, um, just because you're rich and have a castle doesn't mean

01:09:10.360 that you are free from responsibility to those around you. As a matter of fact, if you want your

01:09:15.220 castle to survive and not be torn to bits, you need to take care of the farmers and you take care

01:09:20.240 of the town and you take care of the people that in the surrounding area so that when hard times are

01:09:25.800 upon you, you have a reliable social base that you can depend on. Whereas it's completely different

01:09:33.740 under financial capital, under financial capital today, if you're a millionaire today, you're in

01:09:39.800 Britain, tomorrow you're in Monaco, the next day you're in Milan, you have no attachment to place.

01:09:44.780 They're anti-globalist monuments, basically. They are anti-globalist monuments because they

01:09:50.020 remind you that politics is hyper-local and that you must take care of the people in your immediate

01:09:56.160 vicinity. And they remind you of the correct order of Christian love. You owe more to the people who

01:10:02.740 are closest to you than you do to strangers, which is something that the Home Office would do well to

01:10:07.840 remember. Although, to be fair to them, the Muslims in the Home Office do understand that perfectly. 0.67

01:10:13.080 So there is this moral dimension to the way society was organized in the past,

01:10:19.220 which reflected first hierarchy. And in fact, hierarchy is good because it must be based on

01:10:25.860 competence and the ultimate test of competence is battle. And secondly, there is an element of,

01:10:32.620 there's this web of obligations that everybody exists in, and they remind you that your obligations

01:10:38.940 to those nearest and dearest supersede other obligations. So they have this additional social

01:10:46.620 element to them, which when you go around and see the architecture and you see, well, this castle is

01:10:52.780 made for this family, but it's also ready to host another 2,000 people from the nearby villages and

01:10:58.140 towns. Well, why would this evil aristocrat care about them? Because actually he wasn't an evil

01:11:04.140 aristocrat. He had a genuine interest in the well-being of the society around him. And they had

01:11:09.900 a genuine interest in his own power, because that was how the peace was kept. So there is this other

01:11:18.380 element that you have to think about when you look at these places.

01:11:23.260 I was speaking to Rory before I came on to do this segment, and he was saying about the idea that

01:11:30.540 actually, maybe it'd be a good thing to give a lot of these castles back to

01:11:35.420 the aristocracy, right? The actual nobles who used to own them in the first place and obviously

01:11:40.060 have them just try reconnect some of that neo-feudal sense of kingship and duty and responsibility.

01:11:47.420 Minus making their citizens work in the fields, I hope. Well, iron out the niggles in the plan 1.00

01:11:55.580 at a later date. But also as well, I just want to clarify, this isn't about LARPing as 12th

01:12:02.860 century Christian knights, right? This isn't what this is about. Because what I'm really saying,

01:12:09.100 and part of the reason I told the story with Scarborough, is that actually it's not about it being

01:12:15.260 static, right? It's not about returning a castle to exactly as it was at the beginning of the 1200s,

01:12:21.980 right? But it's about finding a way to take it from the abstract and reintroduce it into something

01:12:28.460 within society that speaks to all of the things that you very ably mentioned, Firas. So yes, at least

01:12:36.860 do go and give the Pendragon Foundation a follow on Twitter, go give it a subscribe on YouTube,

01:12:42.940 and if you're interested in getting involved, well, I've given you all the necessary links so that

01:12:48.620 you can do that. And like Josh, I didn't receive a penny for this. It's just something that I think

01:12:53.740 is a really, really good initiative. And amongst all of the decline and ruin that we see within our

01:13:01.580 culture, a very, very valuable way that we can make practical difference and do something together

01:13:07.660 to actually preserve it. So I hope you've all found this informative.

01:13:13.340 Okay. Sigil Stone 17 says, I want castles in the United States. Sure, we have military bases,

01:13:20.300 but they're the lame and gay version of castles. Castle tower, nuclear missile silos, let's go. 0.98

01:13:29.020 That's the other thing as well, isn't it? Like all our castles are just older than,

01:13:32.940 than the new world. Yes. By a significant margin as well. Right. Yes. Yes.

01:13:38.940 Ocic Door says, for moving Lotus Eaters HQ into a castle, whether built or refurbished. Yeah. I

01:13:47.420 wouldn't mind going to work in a castle. That would be, that would be good fun. See,

01:13:51.100 Firas is already on board. I'm definitely on board. D-Tex says, Firas got that Kanye West laugh.

01:13:59.260 He goes from smiling to serious face in nanoseconds. Well, that's because we're constantly joking and

01:14:06.140 then moving into serious themes, isn't it? Yes. You just roll with the punches. Trying.

01:14:14.460 Arcadia says, Firas's country is so F-stuffed, isn't it? Not yet. Not yet. There's always hope.

01:14:21.100 Good answer. There's always hope. And then I believe you read Gimli's quote. So let's go to the video

01:14:27.180 comments. Okay. A couple of quick announcements. One, I just published a new children's book.

01:14:34.700 There's a Monker in your eye inspired by a play date I had with my nieces and nephews many years ago.

01:14:42.460 Also, Carl, you're going to be in Australia next week. Uh, if you'd like, send me a message on my

01:14:48.620 website and let me know if you're going to be doing a hangout or anything before the conference. I will be

01:14:53.820 there either way, but I hope you enjoy your trip. Oh, we'll pass the message on to him, Cooper.

01:15:00.700 CsCooper.com.au. Thanks. Hope the book goes well as well. Yes.

01:15:07.500 Oh, is that it? I'll see anyone for today. All right. We're going to the comments. Okay.

01:15:10.860 Um, Russian garbage human. Hello there. Um, being honest regarding crime data and issues would mean 1.00

01:15:16.540 the establishment would have to accept that the blank slate theory is a lie and we do have innate traits.

01:15:22.700 Well, the world of academia, ironically enough, largely accepts this in psychology. It's just like,

01:15:27.820 yeah, they use the tabula rasa. It's just like, obviously we don't believe this. Yeah.

01:15:32.540 What are you stupid? Um, what are you, a blank slate? No, they didn't say that. Um, but no, 1.00

01:15:38.300 they said that this was a hit. It was more covered in the history of ideas. Like, yeah,

01:15:42.860 this is an old discredited idea, but it's not true. So the political world sort of needs to catch up a

01:15:49.420 little bit. I don't know whether that's changed a little bit, but I would be surprised because

01:15:53.580 people talk, um, down many of our academic institutions and lots of them, you know,

01:15:59.900 as long as their work doesn't intersect with any woke stuff or political stuff,

01:16:04.220 are doing great stuff to this day. Like, I don't think the people that work on the psychology of

01:16:08.620 visual perception are going to be able to crowbar in anything, um, you know, untoward in there,

01:16:15.260 because it's such a specific field. Well, most of the people that I met, um, not to sound too,

01:16:21.580 you know, on the fence here, most of the people I met were so passionate about the work they did

01:16:25.500 that they wouldn't want to sully the truth. There was this, there's, to be able to rise to the top in

01:16:30.540 many of these disciplines, you've got to have a passion for viewing reality and you're really

01:16:36.060 enthusiastic because you've got to work incredibly hard to get there. And so to ruin it with politics

01:16:42.060 almost feels like sacrilege to many of them. And that's something that should reassure people.

01:16:45.820 It's not actually as bad. Um, although we should still try and retake the universities because,

01:16:50.700 you know, and also I think some disciplines should be banned, like, you know, colonial studies and

01:16:54.940 gender studies, just like, what's the point? Queer theory. Or at least you shouldn't, 1.00

01:16:59.020 they can be easily completely defunded by any parliament that wants to do so. You don't get any

01:17:04.780 diversity funding if you have critical theory, gender theory, blah, blah, blah. And, uh,

01:17:11.180 he carries on to say they'd rather destroy everything than admit they're wrong. Um,

01:17:15.900 let's hope that's not the case. Um, George Hap says, it's not like Ireland and Scotland have

01:17:20.620 been bastions of free speech before. Um, that considered, uh, the banning songs,

01:17:26.620 um, the banning of songs, I presume in general, most normies don't care about free speech until

01:17:31.340 it personally affects them. I think if you get arrested for your most dank memes, that's going

01:17:36.380 to affect you. Um, Lancelot. I'm merely having the memes and not sharing them.

01:17:41.420 I know. You're hiding memes under your floorboards, are you not? Um, Lancelot. Tyranny begins with the

01:17:49.580 redefinition of language. Um, if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

01:17:54.860 Yes. And I think that unless you're committing actual violence or theft, um, I don't think the

01:18:01.020 state should intervene in your life. And, uh, there might be a few exceptions that I haven't thought

01:18:06.380 of, but generally speaking. I'm a big fan of blasphemy laws. And, and one day I'll explain 1.00

01:18:10.700 to you why, but generally there's always been a link between heresy and civil war and political

01:18:17.580 instability. And so the Inquisition did nothing wrong. I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

01:18:26.380 Luke, you beat me to it. Great minds think alike. Colin P says, uh, why are there even such

01:18:33.820 things as protected characteristic? Protected from what? Why those particular characteristics? Well,

01:18:39.420 it's basically that, um, the project of mass immigration has imported people that may not be

01:18:46.940 as good at things as the native population. And you have to protect them from the consequences 1.00

01:18:52.140 of ultimately their own failures, which is about as brutal a way as I can put it. But it is true.

01:18:57.340 Um, Kevin Fox says, makes a change, uh, for the Irish being accused of race-based hatred

01:19:03.340 instead of religion-based hatred. Yeah, it's just cycling it around. It'll come back again, I'm sure.

01:19:09.100 And then, uh, finally, Roman observer, Josh, the EU is an enemy of the people of Europe.

01:19:13.740 Um, and I bet you still haven't read the Manifesto di Venturteni.

01:19:18.940 No idea.

01:19:20.060 Well, I'm going to look it up now. So you've got your wish.

01:19:25.100 On the Muslim Brotherhood, Fuzzy Toaster says, 0.72

01:19:28.220 at this point, I'd rather suffer the fallout of losing genuinely good Muslims 1.00

01:19:32.700 and just kick all the Muslims out. 1.00

01:19:35.740 All of them. The downsides cannot outweigh the benefits at this point. 1.00

01:19:40.300 Look, the reason I agree with you is because these movements are very organic.

01:19:45.100 Like the most successful political movements in the world today are probably the Jabbati, 0.98

01:19:48.620 Islamic and the Muslim Brotherhood.

01:19:50.780 And they aren't sort of imposed or anything. They're genuinely

01:19:55.020 organic expressions of the intellectual and commercial and political elite of the Muslim world.

01:20:01.580 And that's what they think.

01:20:03.020 And, and in, in the, in the next, um, real politic in half an hour,

01:20:08.140 I'll be going over some of what the founders of these organizations have said.

01:20:13.100 And if I said it, I would be accused of being an extremist.

01:20:17.100 But that's what they say their agenda is. So please stay tuned for another half hour.

01:20:21.820 Bleach Demon, uh, would you please do a breakdown of the Muslim Brotherhood? 0.98

01:20:26.940 Uh, assuming, well, okay, it's not a full, full breakdown of it, but it's a breakdown of how they

01:20:33.340 think. But yeah, we can deep, we can do more deep dives if you're interested.

01:20:38.300 And then as an observation, uh, the left see Islamists as fellow travelers to the global revolution.

01:20:45.580 Yes. Uh, Pali group like Democratic Front for the liberation of Palestine, PLO,

01:20:51.420 the popular front, uh, they're openly Marxist revolution. Yeah. And the PLO was,

01:20:55.660 I think taking money from the KGB as were a bunch of those. Um, is this a fatal flow for the likes of

01:21:01.980 Jeremy Corbyn? In the immortal words of Richard Tice, I'll be long gone by then. Uh, and Corbyn will

01:21:07.900 be long gone by the time he has to face the consequences of his, uh, evil alliances.

01:21:12.060 But we won't. So you won't, your children won't. No. So yeah. Dreadnought Logan, when we win and

01:21:20.860 control our countries again, there will be consequences. I pray for no bloodshed except

01:21:25.660 for those who have been to trials and legally are allowed to face these consequences.

01:21:31.180 The thing is like, for me, and I genuinely try to hold to this every day. It's not about hatred,

01:21:37.100 right? No. I, it's not about hating other people, but we have one home and if it's gone,

01:21:43.260 it's gone, right? And I don't want this to be the last century. Yes. That England exists in all

01:21:48.300 of human history, right? It's been one of the greatest nations in the world. An unbiased source

01:21:53.420 might say the greatest. And so I feel that it deserves to continue. It has the most wonderful

01:22:00.380 people and I love it unconditionally, right? And they can't take that away from you.

01:22:06.140 They've got 52 nations to pick from, so if they want to... You fight for what is behind you,

01:22:10.860 not out of enmity for what is in front of you. You fight because you love what's behind you,

01:22:15.500 not because you hate what's in front of you. Yes. Yes. Samson's pulled up the video now.

01:22:21.500 Oh, go on then, Samson, and then we'll get to my comments.

01:22:23.660 Have you got anyone you want to call out in the heavyweight division?

01:22:27.340 Oh, you know it, lad. You know that, Hasan Piker. I'm coming to kill you in Los Angeles at your house.

01:22:37.180 Or in the ring. No, in real life. I'm going to stalk him and become obsessed with him, 1.00

01:22:42.540 and wear his makeup, and his dresses, and use his skin as a coat, like the ancient Irish did. 0.94

01:22:49.740 Well, that's your winner, Sam. Hey!

01:22:52.540 Hey! Get out of here! 1.00

01:22:54.540 I will never get tired of that coat. Ever.

01:22:57.260 You can tell he slightly breaks.

01:23:02.380 He's just all like, wavers off his speech. He's like, no, in real life, like...

01:23:07.900 I'm going to put a shock collar on him.

01:23:09.260 Right, from my segment, we've got Zesty King says,

01:23:15.500 I've been visiting British castles all my life, especially so in the last few years.

01:23:20.940 I'm currently on 78, and I always find them interesting and beautiful. No two are the same.

01:23:26.540 I may or may not have also an article in the Pendragon magazine releasing this Wednesday.

01:23:32.220 Oh, I thought it was today. It said it on the Twitter.

01:23:35.180 Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.

01:23:36.940 Well, you'll be able to buy the magazine, nonetheless.

01:23:40.140 He also says, I volunteered in Tintagel Castle last year.

01:23:44.700 It was honestly stunning, and I was shown all the bits not available to normal tourists.

01:23:50.140 I did this for five days, and I enjoyed every day of it.

01:23:53.260 Well, that sounds like a remarkable experience. I'm quite envious.

01:23:57.500 Reece Sims says, we must restore our castles one machiculation at a time.

01:24:04.620 I'm sorry, I'll have to Google what that means.

01:24:06.940 I can't remember how it's pronounced.

01:24:10.140 I wanted to say in my head that it's meticulation, but I'm not entirely sure, 1.00

01:24:14.140 and people are going to be like, Josh, you're an idiot. 0.99

01:24:15.580 Well, the T's at the end of the words, so I don't think that could be the case. 1.00

01:24:20.380 Anyway, Jordy, I'll have a look. Forgive my ignorance.

01:24:24.140 Jordy Swordsman says, hmm, which castle should I put a quick drive over to tomorrow?

01:24:29.740 Newcastle, Prudhoe, Walkworth, Dunstanbar, Anwick, or Bamboura. I mean, Bamboura's. 0.98

01:24:39.660 It's the most famous one.

01:24:41.820 I've not been to Bamboura yet, but I really must.

01:24:43.900 It's too far north for me. I get dizzy if I go that far north.

01:24:47.100 Yeah, it's like the oxygen levels up there. Your head goes a bit woozy, does it?

01:24:51.980 Oh, that explains a few things.

01:24:54.140 Yes. Yes. You see, this is the thing. I've not quite acclimatized yet to these southern airs.

01:24:59.740 They don't quite agree with me, to be honest with you.

01:25:02.860 It doesn't smell like coal, does it?

01:25:04.460 No. No. Just don't like it, lad.

01:25:08.940 Michael Brooks says, my wife is from a dearly large town in Slovakia,

01:25:14.540 Kezmarok. They have a castle in the town that is still used officially by the council,

01:25:21.020 and as offices for local businesses. Schools also use it as evening spaces, I assume that's meant to

01:25:27.900 say. So nice to see it. Event spaces, perhaps?

01:25:31.100 Yeah, event spaces. Could be either. Well, there was one actually that I saw on the

01:25:36.860 Pendragon Twitter account where they talk about, I think it was one in Scotland perhaps, but where it

01:25:42.300 is a university campus. So actually, yeah, that's great. That's an example of living history. Sure,

01:25:47.900 it's not a fortification, but at least it's still serving as some center for public life, right?

01:25:54.380 I think making them into universities, or schools, or even council offices. There's

01:25:59.020 government offices. There's nothing wrong with that. Well, I don't feel like we should perhaps

01:26:03.180 sully them with the hands of councils and politicians, but... Maybe if you reminded them of their

01:26:08.780 noble origins and duties, it might improve them. And maybe if they constantly have to think that

01:26:15.100 one day they might be under siege and facing cannon fire, it would provide them with a

01:26:19.100 better incentive. When we have Cromwell 2.0 comes along. It could also be a place for

01:26:24.860 budding witchcrafts and wizards, you know. Harry Potter, of course. Not being blasphemous,

01:26:30.140 don't you? Yes, yes, yes. I'm only joking.

01:26:34.620 You'll be sorry when the Inquisition comes back. It's all right. The witch burnings were based, 1.00

01:26:39.260 and I'll make them happen again. Thank you. And I love the outfits. Derek Power says,

01:26:45.580 all I ask is one castle to use as Chippy HQ. Doesn't have to be a big one, though that'll help.

01:26:52.780 I'm not sure. Do we mean the headquarters for fish and chip shops? Like, what was my Chippy?

01:26:59.100 The grand central authority of fish and chip shops. Yeah. Well, that should be obviously in

01:27:04.460 Scarborough by the North Sea. Mr. Flibble, rather. We can use the castles as our last line of defence

01:27:12.860 when Hamza. Yes. Hamza the Hun is excellent as well, as I tell a phrase. Yeah. Yeah, there comes

01:27:21.420 great respect for the Huns. Well, an honourable mentions, Zesty King informs us, happy no bra day,

01:27:27.900 everyone. Well, I came prepared. Josh, get your tits out. It's much easier now with no bra. 1.00

01:27:37.260 And Roman Observer says, Luca should visit the town of Luca. Yeah, it looks glorious, I have to say.

01:27:46.140 Yeah. Well, I'll have to tour Italy much more when Europe is more at peace and we have time.

01:27:53.660 Get your Johnson out in Luca. Sorry, I have to lower the tone. It's almost the end.

01:28:00.380 Oh, no. Is it 229? Well, I think we'll call it there, ladies and gentlemen. All right. Well,

01:28:07.820 thank you for joining us. As we say, Firas is on again. Join him at three o'clock for RealPolitik,

01:28:14.540 where you can get an extension on today's segment talking about the Muslim Brotherhood. And again,

01:28:20.220 do sign up for Stelios' webinar at 6pm on Thursday. And we will see you at 1pm tomorrow. So enjoy the rest

01:28:29.980 of your day. Thanks very much.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - October 13, 2025

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1272

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