You're wrong in that consensus means nothing. Right is right, wrong is wrong. When 99% of people agree on something that's wrong, it's still wrong. The history of science is littered with "consensus" views that were wrong.
Here's the thing. In science there is no such thing as fact, only what is known at the moment. For example, all chickens have black eyes, no chickens have blue eyes. This is a scientific "fact" until a chicken with blue eyes is observed. Politically or religiously, right or left, should the chicken have blue eyes the known observation will not sway the ideologically driven to waver from the belief but the scientific papers are all rewritten..
As such69% of the American people and 27% of their scientists don't believe in evolution and instead believe in creationism. Classic example is the Calgary backhoe operator who helped open a creationist museum purporting the world at 6000 years old accidentally dug up some fossilized fish millions of years old while digging a basement but still refuses to believe it's not a hoax.
Science by consensus is the closest we get to accuracy as it is an evolving discipline.