César Vidal: the conspiracy theory business in Spain

Conspiracy theories as a career: the case of César Vidal

The fact that a figure has spent four decades claiming the world is run by a secret cabal and still fills airtime is, for many, proof that critical thinking in Spain died of an overdose of talk radio. The controversy surrounding César Vidal – historian, writer and broadcaster – never stops, and this time it has been reignited by a barrage of reproaches ranging from conspiracy-mongering to alleged plagiarism in his work.

The business model that sustains Vidal is one of the main points of contention. His show is funded by contributions from listeners, a formula his defenders present as a guarantee of independence. The argument, however, does not stand up to scrutiny: the audience paying does not make the content more truthful, only more expensive for those who fund it. In this market, audience loyalty trades at a premium.

Plagiarism and 'pseudohistory': the other accusations

His extensive bibliography is shadowed by accusations of plagiarism and intellectual fraud. According to several analyses, his popular history books would have copied from other sources without citing them, a practice his critics call 'pseudohistory'. Nothing has been confirmed in court so far, but the academic discredit is already complete. The case gets murkier when other popularizers are thrown into the same bag, such as Colonel Baños, who is credited with a certain flair for spectacle but little analytical rigour.

A phenomenon that survives discredit

The polarization is total. Between those who dismiss him as a product of media paranoia and those who defend him as a bulwark against the official narrative, there is no middle ground. The peculiarity of the phenomenon is that constant attack does not erode his audience; it reinforces it. The more he is discredited, the more his trinc suspect there is an operation to silence him. That is the paradox that turns a supposedly 'cursed' career into a profitable business.

The question is not whether César Vidal is a charlatan or a visionary – the answer depends on the lens you look through – but why such easily refutable discourse keeps finding buyers. Perhaps the answer lies not in him, but in the systemic distrust of traditional media. As long as that gap exists, there will be money in conspiracy theories.