[breischl]

Consensus seems to be the best available alternative, but it still doesn'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 "competing consensus." Prime examples of that being the anti-vaccination movement, climate change deniers, and the pro-smoking studies from cigarette companies.

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're back to expert opinion and appeals to authority.