Anons throwing out hunches and other anons running with it to see if it goes anywhere is basically the totality of our investigative power. It's how our collective consciousness works.
However, it has to go hand in hand with the ability to call bullshit and play devil's advocate against those positions, to test them and see if they hold up to scrutiny enough to be considered truth.
The problem is when you have a bunch of plebbit refugees coming in expecting the familiar comfort of groupspeak, and are constantly trying to find dogmatic lines to draw boundaries of what is allowed inquiry and what isn't. They don't attack the ideas presented on their merits, just screech SHILL and filter.
We need to be adaptable enough to entertain any thought, for as long as possible, no matter how unlikely, but discerning enough to accept valid criticisms and alter our theories accordingly.