There's a gold saying that applies to your skepticism to the...

There's a gold saying that applies to your skepticism to the experts, "You don't know what you don't know." and self-taught experts often fall short on realizing their limitation. SAD!!
I work with bunch of Ph.D and associate professors, they can't care-less to address skeptics from the general public, it takes at least 8 years to build enough knowledge in order to have a level field to discuss or debate with these people who dedicated their life to just one field, what makes you think an average person with average IQ and average dedication to academic knows better?
Firstly - remember that if an opinion piece apparently carries "Conflict of interest" that opinion piece carries no weight AT ALL, industry, media and politicians are in one boat, linked by lobbyist, which is a powerful alliance that makes shed loads of money together. Academics? the best they can achieve by lobbying a journal is to get their article published, the reward for academics to publish fake fact is almost none.
For politician, Businessman, the reward is worth multi-generation of wealth.

I think Belle Gibson's school of life lecture series may suit you just fine.