Another conspiracy theory, this one is being pushed on Netflix.

[sop]

10. Daniken is a charlatan, probably a racist as well.

"Von Daniken sold more than 45 million copies of his books, including one, 'Gold of the Gods,' in which he finds a hidden, enormous labyrinth in South America containing vast treasures of gold and such irrefutable proof of alien technology as a plastic chair."

"He wrote that he was driven away from the site by primitive, hostile Indians and couldn't ever find it again. Later still he admitted he made the whole thing up: 'That did not happen,' he said, adding pathetically, 'All the facts do exist but with other interpretations.' (As a young man von Daniken was described by a court psychiatrist as a liar and criminal psychopath just before serving a year in prison for forgery, embezzlement and fraud.)"

"Von Daniken's message was ultimately racist: He exploited the simple-minded idea that primitives in places like the Andes and Central America could not possibly have managed their engineering feats without some kind of outside help. You know how backward those people are! Aliens must have shown them how to build those pyramids."

"Debunker James Randi writes in 'Flim Flam!' that at no point does von Daniken cite such architectural marvels as the Chartres Cathedral, Stonehenge, or the Parthenon, 'because these wonders are European, built by people he EXPECTS to have the intelligence and ability to do such work. He cannot conceive of our brown and black brothers having the wit to conceive or the skill to build the great structures that they did leave behind.'"

https://www.deseret.com/1989/12/24/18839036/tale-of-outer-space-ancestors-is-literary-fraud