Perhaps the concept does have that role in Marxism, but I'm not a Marxist. I don't buy "false consciousness" because it is an integral part of some rickety theoretical superstructure that I need to preserve. I think "false consciousness" is a useful concept because there is evidence that various groups that are provably disadvantaged according to certain indicators either underestimate their disadvantage or deny it entirely when asked. There is also evidence that in many of these cases the cause of this is a social system that either hides relevant information from the disadvantaged group or molds their outlook on the world so that they are motivated to deny (or ignore) the evidence.
As such, it's no more an excuse to protect against conflicting evidence than, say, the claim that people in general dramatically overestimate their relative performance at everyday tasks.
I think "false consciousness" is a useful concept because there is evidence that various groups that are provably disadvantaged according to certain indicators either underestimate their disadvantage or deny it entirely when asked.
As opposed to being evidence that you're looking at the wrong indicators. At best this amounts to "the people don't care enough about the things I think they should, therefore there's something wrong with the people".
Edit: Also up-thread you said regarding the basis of your argument:
...This is not the sort
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Of course, for "every Monday", the last one should have been dated July 22-28. *cough*