Muting is not an analog to what you're describing here. That is, unless you start demanding that random people on the street not converse with the person you don't like.
If you're at a party and you demand that no-one speak to the person you don't like, that's not exactly reasonable.
It's much more accurate to say "If you're at a party standing at a table and you demand that no-one at your table speak to the person you don't like if they come to your table" than what you have here. Assuming Hubski is the party - threads are tables - otherwise we're saying each individual thread is a party in which case there are shit-tons of parties going on constantly and missing out on one shouldn't be (for the average person) a very big deal, as it's very easy to hop to all the other parties going on around you. I guess we can get more elaborate and talk about theme parties. Like maybe a user is throwing a party that focuses on zebras and you really want to go, but you can't because you're not invited. There are lots of other parties going on but there are no other zebra parties. That is kind of sad. But there remain options. Maybe you can find a horse party or a giraffe party where you're invited.