There's a scientific consensus on Newtonian mechanics, too, but no one bothers to mention it. It's also not relevant to any divisive political issues. If it we

There's a scientific consensus on Newtonian mechanics, too, but no one bothers to mention it. It's also not relevant to any divisive political issues. If it were, you'd hear plenty about the consensus (in the negative sense, I guess, since Newtonian mechanics is fundamentally mistaken despite having good predictive value for some stuff). Nobody has time to personally verify the entire edifice of modern science from the ground up; what's commonly accepted as true in science is precisely the set of things for which a broad consensus among people in the field exists. It's not a perfect solution, but it's worked well so far. So, while the truth isn't decided by a vote, the best approximation of truth known to humanity pretty much is, and the people voting are experts in the field (which, I note, does not include Krugman or a variety of other people making very strong statements on the issue).