I agree that it is incredible to think that tens of thousands of people are all conspiring to hide the truth and deliver lies.
But as a counterpoint, consider past scientific theories that were generally believed. There is an interesting YouTuber,
SeeThePattern, that takes deep dives into oddball and abandoned theories (among other things).
Here is one he did on the expanding earth theory an an alternative to plate tectonic theory. I can't find a link to it right now, but I recall perusing a really old book in my college library that discussed in great detail how the earth used to be hotter, and thus larger, and that all the plate boundaries we now understand to be subduction zones are because the earth is smaller, and thus "wrinkled." And
here is the first of a multi-part theory that explores thinking about luminifarous aether and light propagation over many many generations.
And think about the Greeks, and their teaching about matter and how the universe was composed. They were well intentioned, hard working, fiercely competitive and yet still wrong.
This is not to say that mankind should not try to figure things out, or that experimental evidence should not be sought and explained. But I think we should always keep in the back of our mind that we might be thinking about things incorrectly.
As another example, the theory of quantum mechanics postulates that matter exists in a state of superposition until a measurement "collapses the waveform", and there is hot debate about the idea of "realism" -- that things exist independent of measurement. This was the origin of Einstein's question to Bohr of whether the moon exists when not being observed. See more
here. Quantum field theory, a subsequent theory which is generally believed, holds that there is reality independent of observation and conflicts in places with older quantum theory.
All this is to say, that just because a large number of people follow a theory, doesn't mean that something later will come along and cast all those prior facts into a new understanding. This is good, but it should keep us humble.
Best wishes,
Kevin