Original subtitles

♪♪

[bell jingling]

Hello?

Are you open?

I came for the two-for-one!

Wait.

This isn't a cupcake shop.

Huh.

A jar full of eyes.

A monkey's paw.

Ooh, a skull! [laughing]

Did you know that teeth

aren't technically considered bones?

"No, I did not. I don't have a brain."

Oh, man, this place is fun!

[man laughing maniacally]

The fun we're going to have

hasn't even begun.[thundering]

Hi there! Is this place new?

I could've sworn there was a cupcake shop here.

Oh, no.

I've been here quite a while.

Oh, how long?

I love supporting local businesses.

Do you get a lot of foot traffic?

Don't worry about it.

Instead, let's play one of my little games.

Ooh, sounds fun!

You will face a series of challenges.

The first, so deadly and violent--

Violent?

Violent? Got it!

The first challenge is to debunk

the common misconception

that video games cause violence.

Can do!

Wait, that wasn't a riddle.

Where'd he go?

Who was that guy?!

That was Adam Conover,

and this is "Adam Ruins Everything."

Ahh!Uh...

Closed Captions Provided by truTV

[screaming]

'Sup, fam?!

It's Reaper666 streaming for you live

from the reap den.

Today we're going old school with a classic!

"Gut Cruncher III: Blood-pocalypse Rising."

Henry, it's time for lunch.

Dad?!

Get out!

Wait. What is this?

Are you playing violent video games again?

You're gonna wind up on the 6:00 news.

[Adam] Don't worry, Dad.

The idea that video games cause violent crime

is a total myth.

That is disgusting.

They're trying to brainwash you

into thinking that video games are safe.

[Adam] Nope.

You're the one who's been brainwashed.

For as long as video games have existed,

they've sent American parents

into a frenzy of fear.

In 1976, the National Safety Council

panicked over the arcade game "Death Race,"

calling these tame little pixels,

"Sick, sick, sick."

Actually!

And in the '90s, politicians had a full-scale freak-out

about a little game called "Mortal Kombat."

Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman claimed

it taught kids to, quote,

"Enjoy inflicting the most gruesome forms of cruelty."

But despite these repeated parades

of pearl clutch and panic,

there is still no actual evidence

linking video games to violent crime.

I don't know.

I'm still not convinced.

[Adam] Well, let's look at the facts.

As video game sales in America have spiked,

violent crime has actually gone down.

And other countries where games are popular

have even lower rates of violent crime.

[speaking Japanese]

[Adam] And despite the lazy media narrative

connecting mass shootings to video games,

multiple studies, including an analysis

by the Secret Service,

have found that school shooters

actually consume significantly lower amounts

of violent media and video games than their peers.

So you're saying video games

don't have any effect on our kids at all?

Not even that game "Fork Knife,"

where you kill people with pickaxes?

It's called "Fortnite," Dad!

[sighing]

A pickax is a harvesting tool.

[Adam] Well, some studies do show

that violent video games can cause a temporary increase

in aggressive thoughts and behavior.

But those studies are pretty flimsy.

Because they didn't measure anything the average person

would actually consider aggression.

One study just measured whether or not

people who played video games were more likely

to feed their opponents hot sauce.

Hey!

And even if these studies had tested

real-world acts of aggression,

the change in behavior they measured was tiny.

Just 2% on average.

Other studies have shown a similar effect

in racing games and even real-life sports.

Dad does rage out

whenever I beat him at ping-pong.

That's 'cause you play dirty, Henry!

Oh...

Uh, I see it now.

Guys, meet video game researcher

and level-30 demon slayer,

Dr. Patrick Markey.

'Sup, Reaper666?

Hope you don't mind, I already defeated

that final boss.

Blaming video games for real-world violence

really took off after the Columbine shooting,

and it was an understandable mistake,

because we all desperately wanted

some reason why someone would commit

such a horrific act of violence.

But today we know

video games actually aren't what's to blame.

And yet politicians across the political spectrum

still scapegoat video games.

As recently as the 2018 Parkland tragedy,

the president of the United States

was saying things like...

And reporters parrot this lazy narrative right back.

After the Newtown school shooting,

it was widely reported that the gunman played video games.

But what they left out was that his favorite game,

the one he'd play up to ten hours a day,

was "Dance Dance Revolution."

The fact is, it's just easier to blame

video games than to tackle societal problems

that actually impact rates of violence.

Things like educational and employment disparities,

stigma against seeking mental health treatment,

and, especially in the case of shootings,

access to guns.

[Adam] Instead, we're wasting time

and tax dollars on even more research

to try to prove a link

between violence and video games

that just doesn't exist.

That's right.

I'm a video game researcher,

and even I think this is a waste of time.

And that's why I'm taking a break

to beat the next level.

Oh, man, it's underwater!

See you, guys.

The truth is, scapegoating and banning

violent video games doesn't protect kids;

it just distracts us from figuring out

what we really need to do

to keep people safe.

Ah, you're right.

Henry, you can play that gut game,

with supervision.

[sighing] Okay, Dad.

You just gotta narrate everything for the stream.

Mm-hmm.

Let's see what we got.

[gasping]

Did you just shove that gun up his...

[gasping] Oh, God!

♪♪

Doh!

First challenge complete.

No!

You were supposed to fight a demonic...

You know what? Never mind, it's fine.

[clears throat]

The second game we're going to play

won't just monopolize your time--

Oh, Monopoly.

You want me to ruin Monopoly

by explaining how it was originally intended

to be an anticapitalist teaching tool.

Sure thing.

What?! No! Come back!

[sighing]

You do realize he's going to be like this

the whole time?

[sighing]

[woman laughing]

And you're bankrupt.

And that's how you do it.

Wow, Gail, you win. Again.

Hell, yes.

Corporate-mandated team-bonding night

just got started.

How about this?

If either one of you can beat me

in the next round,

I'll give you back your health benefits.

Really? Come on.

If you can't make it in Monopoly,

you can't make it in life.

The point is to make enough cash

to crush anybody that can't compete.

[Adam] Actually, that's wrong.

The original point of Monopoly

was to teach players that accumulating wealth

at all costs is terrible for society.

Here, I'll show ya.

Whoa.

In the version of Monopoly you know,

you collect as much property as you can

until you've bankrupted all the other players.

[laughing]

Mine! Pay up, bozos.

But this isn't how the game

was meant to be played at all.

When Monopoly was first invented,

these monopolist rules

were just one of two ways to play.

The second was called the prosperity rules.

Here, take another turn.

Ooh, heck, yeah!

I got Boardwalk, baby!

Hey, congrats.

Under the prosperity rules,

when you buy a property, you share a portion

of the wealth with all the other players.

Thanks, Gail.Thanks, Gail.

Wait, what?

But... this is my money.

Who wants to play a version of Monopoly

where everybody wins?

Well, originally, it wasn't just a game.

What we know today as Monopoly

was invented in 1903 by a social activist

named Lizzie Magie,

who meant for it to be a teaching tool

about the evils of capitalism.

How can I make people realize

that Carnegie and Rockefeller

are swimming in money

while their workers struggle?

And that's a bad thing.

Ah, a board game.

Magie called her idea The Landlord's Game,

and it was meant to demonstrate that while

the winner-take-all system of capitalism

forces everyone to fight against each other,

when wealth is equally distributed,

all of society wins.

And lots of people loved it.

Using a board game as a teaching tool

for economic justice?

How keen. Your turn.

Sounds like a pretty boring game to me.

But I love a badass female innovator

as much as the next CEO.

Go make bank off that socialism, girl.

Oh, even if she'd wanted to make money off of it,

she never had the chance.

Magie's game was ripped off by a destitute

Depression-era deadbeat.

His name was Charles Darrow,

and he was introduced

to The Landlord's Game at a party.

He didn't think anyone owned the idea,

so he passed it off

to Parker Brothers as his own.

Hey, Parker Bros.

Check out this game I definitely made up all by myself.

It's called Monopoly.

It's about making money,

and it's gonna make us all a ton of money.

Oh, heck, yeah. We're in.

But then they discovered that Lizzie Magie

already had a patent.

Hey, according to the patent office,

some lady came up with this game.

But don't worry. That won't stop us.

What?! I hope she sued the pants off of them!

And then I hoped they all got slapped with

HR violations for being pants-less.

She couldn't and didn't.

Parker Brothers convinced her to sell

them her patent for just 500 bucks.

Say, dame, what do you say you let us

make your little game for you?

And in exchange for sharing,

here's an amount of money that's definitely

not lowballing you.

Oh, I don't care about the money.

I'm just happy more people will learn

how dreadful capitalism is.

[Adam] But Parker Brothers only made a few copies

of Magie's Landlord's Game.

Instead, they mass-produced Darrow's version,

which only included the monopolist rules.

And when Monopoly took off,

it made Charles Darrow a millionaire.

While Lizzie Magie never saw a penny in royalties.

Oh...

And even worse, Parker Brothers

completely erased her name from the game's history,

giving full credit to Darrow.

Step right up to buy America's

favorite board game!

It'll take you from rags to riches

just like its inventor, Charles Darrow.

Ironically, what Darrow

and Parker Brothers did

actually proved Magie's original point.

Capitalism can be a cutthroat competition

where one person winning

means someone else has to lose.

And maybe that's something to think about

the next time you play Monopoly

or do business.

Bye-bye.

Wait, you're gonna leave me in here?

Guys, you still there?

Can you hear me?!

Help!

Oh, great, you're back.

Don't care where you've been.

Let's just cut straight to...

the most sinister, vile,

and destructive game of all!

That's an easy one.

The Olympics.

Really?!

That's what you got out of that?!

[watch alarm beeping]

Oh, my God!

Oh my God, oh my God, it's starting!

[TV announcer] Good morning to whoever

is crazy enough to watch sports at 3:00 a.m.

Today's women's weightlifting finals

will make or break dreams of Olympic gold.

Oh, there she is! Go, Bethany!

You're a winner just by being here, girl.

[chanting] USA, USA!

Actually, in the Olympics almost everyone loses.

Come on, I'll show you.

Even though the Olympics

are a multibillion-dollar industry,

everyone from the athletes to the cities

that hosts the Games gets screwed.

This is so cool.

But wait, what do you mean?

I mean, making it to the Olympics

is like a dream come true.

Yes, but to achieve that dream

many athletes are living a nightmare.

[Adam] Even some medalists

are unable to make ends meet

and live close to the poverty line.

Tell us, what's it really like to be

an Olympic athlete?

Uh, we often have to pay for our own training,

travel, and equipment.

[panting]

It costs... tons of money.

Often tens of thousands a year.

[crowd cheering]

Wow! An incredible performance

while speaking an incredible truth.

What are you gonna do next?

Oh...

Sleep in my car, I guess.

I can't afford to pay rent.

Heartbreaking.

Just like Ronda Rousey,

who had to live in her car even after she won

a medal in judo in 2008.

[woman] Wait a minute.

Olympics athletes aren't paid?

But millions of people are watching them on TV.

Well, they might get some pay

but hardly enough to live on.

Sometimes their only compensation is team swag.

I can't eat this.

Ugh, I guess I could try.

Okay, what about Michael Phelps?

He makes tons of money.

Yeah, but most of that sweet sports scratch

comes from sponsorship,

and only the megastars can get those

because the International Olympic Committee

bars anyone but the biggest names

from using phrases like the "Olympics"

or "Team USA" to earn money.

Hulko Puffs puff me up for the [bleep].

What the... ?

For the [bleep].

You know what? Never mind.

Okay, why don't their teams just pay them?

Because they'd rather spend the money

they get from the Olympics

on overpaid coaches and administrators.

[Adam] In 2016, the executive director of U.S. Swimming

made $854,000.

But most of his swimmers only made 5% of that.

What?

But the athletes do all the work.

[man] Exactly.

Sweet baby Costas!

It's shot put gold medalist Adam Nelson!

Always a pleasure to meet another Adam.

So, tell us what it feels like

to be an Olympic athlete.

Sore mostly, but seriously, it's a struggle.

Athena, I was the number-one-ranked

shot putter in the world for a number of years

and my family still lived competition to competition,

oftentimes barely able to get by.

What?! That is terrible.

People idolize you guys,

and you didn't get anything out of it?

Well, don't get me wrong.

I love the Olympics Games

and-- and the fans that support it.

But the bottom line is that the IOC exploits the athletes.

It's our work, our dedication,

and our competition that allows the IOC

to generate billions of dollars

in revenue every year,

yet for some reason it's the athletes

that are still struggling to make a living.

That's why I've tried to organize

a Track & Field Athletes Union

to empower the voice of the athletes

within the Olympic movement.

Now, if you'll excuse me,

I've gotta go find that shot put.

They are not cheap.

Man.

I always thought that Olympic athletes' lives

were all Wheaties boxes

and Olympic village orgies.

I'm afraid not.

And if you think the athletes

are treated poorly,

wait till you hear what the Olympics does

to its host cities.

♪♪

To host the Games, cities have to spend

billions on accommodations and upgrades.

And that investment almost always loses money.

At the 2012 Games,

London only made back 29% of what they spent.

[bell tolling]

Beijing spent almost half a billion dollars

to build a new stadium,

and they're still spending 11 million a year

to maintain it,

even though most of the time it's empty.

♪♪

Whew!

Analysts even believe that Greece is dead

after the 2004 Athens Game

helped lead to its economic crisis,

which has had a ripple effect all over the EU.

And not only are taxpayers footing the bill,

the impact on the residents of those cities

is more destructive than Ryan Lochte

in a Rio gas station.

When local governments start suping up their cities

for anticipated tourists,

rents skyrocket,

and many people are forced from their homes,

even into homelessness.

Sometimes citizens are straight up

kicked out under the guise of

"cleaning up the city for the global spotlight."

Before the Rio Olympics,

business leaders spent $12.7 million

on private security

to force over a thousand homeless people

and young black men

out of high-tourist areas.

For Seoul, almost 750,000 people were displaced.

And in Beijing an estimated

1.5 million people

were kicked out of their homes to make room

for Olympic construction.

Oh, my God.

All those people, just for a game?

Yeah.

Which is why people around the world

have fought against the Games

coming to their city.

[all chanting] No Olympics here!

No Olympics here!

Organizers in Boston, Budapest,

Hamburg, and Rome

have all successfully lobbied their governments

to drop bids to host the 2024 Games.

And in Los Angeles, right now,

activists are fighting to try to get their mayor

to pull out of the 2028 Games.

This is horrible.

Why do we even do the Olympics

if it's this bad?

Because the people who organize them

make too much money to care.

[Adam] In the last Olympics,

the International Olympic Committee

made over $3.5 billion in TV rights

and company partnerships.

While businesses and developers make billions

building flashy new stadiums, hotels, and high-rises.

[cash register ringing, crowd cheering]

And of course, the prestige of hosting

the Games is a huge boost

to the careers of ambitious politicians.

[cheering and applause]

And the IOC encourages and exploits all of this.

Even going so far as to accept bribes.

So the people who run the Olympics

are making all this money

and everyone else is getting screwed.

Yup. Until those who benefit

use their power to change the system,

this is the true Olympic spirit.

Guess I'm going back to watching football.

Actually...

Eh, never mind.

You've had enough for one day.

Ah, I figured you weren't coming back.

I'll take my prize now, please.

♪♪

Do you really have no clue

what's going on here?!

Fine.

This was supposed to be a big reveal, but...

I'm the devil!

And I was doing this whole thing more like,

you know, if you didn't win my games

I was gonna steal your soul, but, uh...

doesn't really matter now

because you didn't play by the rules!

So I get to steal your soul anyway!

[laughing maniacally]

Actually, that's not how rules work at all.

[laughing mockingly]

Hey, Adam, thank you so much for coming on the show.

We really appreciate it.

It's a pleasure to be here, Adam.

Are you optimistic about the chances for

athletes in the Olympics

organizing and-- and being able to fight

for better treatment?

I am an eternal optimist,

which is why I think I was pretty good as an athlete.

I always believe that there's

something more to achieve, and that we can achieve it.

But in order for that to happen,

the athletes are gonna have to bridge the gaps

that exist between them

and see that they have this common bond.

Unfortunately, they are actually exploited.

But the German athletes

have done a good job of organizing

over the last year and a half and earning recognition

for their independent athletes group.

We in the U.S. have still struggled to--

to get to that point.

And I'm optimistic about it

but I know it's always gonna be an uphill battle.

Well, for folks at home who are hearing about

this issue for the first time

and wanna support the athletes

but still, you know, love--

love watching the Olympics on TV,

what can they do to help the athletes

fight for better treatment?

I don't have an answer for that, Adam.

[laughing] That's fine.

There isn't always something that people at home can do.

You know, I think everything that the culture can do,

everything that the fans can do

to empower athletes, to recognize their value

is gonna help.Right.

And that's-- that's the big change that has to happen

is the athletes have to understand

what the value is that they're actually giving up

and then not be afraid to say,

"It's not un-American

for me to ask for what I'm worth."

In fact, it's the exact opposite.

Right, that's a real

foundational American principle.

That you-- you have value and you should ask for,

and you should negotiate, damn it!

Exactly, exactly.

And a negotiation doesn't involve you

giving me a contract that I can't change.

Right.

Well, I really appreciate you being out there

fighting for it, Adam, and-- and thank you

for coming on the show to talk to us about it.

Oh, thanks for having me, guys.

Read the contract.

According to the rules, your soul is mine.

But I never agreed to those rules.

And games are better for everyone

when we all get to decide what the rules are.

Just like society.

Hell isn't society.

It's... hell.

For instance, we've ignored

all the positive things that video games can bring

just 'cause a few people

wanna make rules about which games we get to play.

You know, I somehow feel

like you haven't been listening to anything

I've said this entire time.

And we never learned Lizzie Magie's

lesson about capitalism

because Charles Darrow and the Parker Brothers

threw her rules in the trash.

I-- I-- I don't think I even want your soul anymore.

You're too annoying.

And the Olympics can't truly

live up to their ideals

of bringing people across the world together

if the rules we use to govern them

are so unfair and destructive.

Yeah, uh-huh. Great. You done?

Games are important.

They're often how we first learn

to interact with others,

and they're a reflection of the world we live in.

So, in games and real life,

when we see that the rules aren't working,

we have to change them.

Yeah, right! Bye!

[bell on door jingling]Oh, man.

This was so much easier

when I was just selling cupcakes.

[sighing]

[laughing maniacally]

Thank you for joining me.Thanks for having me.

So, Maria, we just talked in this episode

about how the Olympics negatively impacts cities that host it.

Your group, Strategic Actions For A Just Economy,

is working here in L.A.

to try to mitigate those negative effects.

Absolutely. That's exactly what I do.

If you look at the Olympics

that happened in London, Sweden, Geneva,

usually what you see is rental prices increase

between 30 to 40%.

You have a developer who says

I can make an apartment there,

or I can make a boutique hotel

or a big luxury hotel

that's gonna hold all of the athletes

that are gonna come and be a part of the Olympics

and they'll try to get permits

for hotel, restaurants and whatnot.

Evict everybody, knock it down,

build a hotel there.Absolutely.

And then what you have is these families

who can afford very little rent

suddenly thrown out into the street,

where rents are between $1,500 to $2,500.

Oh, wow.So, often we see that homelessness raise--

rise two to three times what they normally are.

And in L.A. we wanna make sure that that doesn't happen.

What is your group doing

and what can folks at home do to,

you know, push back against this trend?

Either in L.A. of if the Olympics comes to their city.

Absolutely. Some of the ways

that people are countering that is they're forming groups.

For example, here in Los Angeles

we have a group NOlympics,

and they're-- it's a consortium

of different groups that have come together

to basically say here is how the Olympics

are gonna negatively impact our society,

our communities, our homes,

and we're not going to take that.

They write letters, they stage rallies,

they go to decision-makers

and they let them know exactly what their worries are

and what they would like to see in place of the Olympics.

That's democracy in action.

To take that action...Absolutely.

...and lobby the government directly,

as citizens.Absolutely.

You cannot wait for the answers

to be written for you.

You have to take part in a democracy.

It's a full-contact sport.

Well, thank you so much for doing it.

Thank you so much for coming on the show and talk to us about it.

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