I’ve been consistent with my pronouns, while you haven’t:
“If anyone is responsible for the state of the world, it’s the philosopher…”
—“Or those who martyr them.”
“Aren’t those really the same , though?”
You turned “the philosopher”, singular, into “them”, plural. It’s alright, though, because I did mean the philosopher in general.
Now logically, when one uses a demonstrative pronoun like “those” without being more specific, it must, if it can, refer to the subject of the previous sentence. So my “those” should be your “those who martyr them”. But to be sure, it could also refer to “them”. Then again, I said “Aren’t those really the same”. So I could mean that your “those” are the same as your “them”, or your “the[y]” are the same as your “those”. The same thing amounts to it!
And yes, I’m saying Socrates martyred himself by not choosing exile. He chose to stay, and drunk the hemlock himself; it was not forced down his throat.
Lastly, what I meant in particular is that the great philosophers, e.g. Socrates/Plato and Machiavelli, are responsible for the state of the world today, especially the existential threats that confront us (climate change, AI, and nuclear war)… If anyone, that is.