Consensus seems to be the best available alternative, but it still doesn&#x27;t seem to be very good in many cases. As the article pointed out it is not difficult to manufacture enough bullshit that it looks like a &quot;competing consensus.&quot; Prime examples of that being the anti-vaccination movement, climate change deniers, and the pro-smoking studies from cigarette companies.<p>Counting up and evaluating all the studies is itself a time-consuming task, hence the existence of meta-analyses. But then you get into duelling meta-analyses, and you have to choose which one(s) to trust, and you&#x27;re back to expert opinion and appeals to authority.