On April 29, 1935, a group of brave riders began pedaling through the center of Madrid, leaving from Atocha station. They were participants in the first edition of the Vuelta a España, a competition that this year celebrates its 80th edition in 90 years, as it was not always possible to take place. That first edition featured 50 cyclists who faced a 10-stage route of more than 250 km each. When the Vuelta returned to Madrid on May 15, only 29 cyclists arrived. The rest had folded, exhausted by a tough route on dirt roads, with slopes that broke their legs and caused damage to their iron bicycles. The winner was Belgian Gustaaf Deloor, who beat Catalan Mariano Cañardo, second in the general classification. Marianu He suffered a lot, as he quickly lost teammates and suffered falls.

In recent days, we've witnessed something that seemed like a sociological experiment. How would society react if, suddenly, what theoretically generated understandable concern—the irregularities and cases of corruption attributed to people linked to the PSOE—were replaced almost the same day by other, symmetrical issues—the irregularities and cases of corruption attributed to people linked to the PP? In a matter of hours, many citizens went from being very attentive to certain personal and partisan events to contemplating others that, in some way, cast doubt on the former (or vice versa). Certain improvised statements, later transformed into exercises in overinterpretation of reality by slicing them into pieces in talk shows, intersected with others that, conveniently reheated on social media, have now become part of the small local history of frivolity. Thank goodness these things never last more than twenty or thirty hours after the initial outbreak... All of this also has a global dimension. If Donald Trump were to announce today that he intends to get a divorce—this is the first example that comes to mind—it would generate a fleeting scrutiny on the subject, relegating the ignominious rubble of Gaza to the background. Let it be clear that I'm not referring to major natural disasters or other events that would justify a sudden change of subject, but to something inconsequential from a collective perspective.

As sensitive as we are to the misinformation caused by fake news, we are at the same time extremely tolerant of the systematic publication of white lies intended to make us agree with the political agenda of those who fabricated them and the media outlet where they are published. I think of all these studies, investigations, interviews, and reports used to create a biased representation of reality to make it more complacent and less conflictive, or to make it more threatening and provoke a more forceful response in favor of how we would like it to be.