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Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

Michael Crichton
Literature, Matter, Way
"Consensus Science and the Peer Review" by Jorge R. Barrio, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. April 28, 2009.
Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.