I agree with your second to last paragraph.

Hubski is going to find itself in the same boat that reddit is in, meaning, people don't think too much when using the up/down vote (in this case mute/ignore/hush).

The entire Hubski system is predicated on people carefully considering when they choose to use these options. If reddit has taught us anything, it's that some people will, most people won't. I myself have already been muted because the user 'didn't like my tone'. I never insulted anyone, didn't attack a single person. I expressed my opinion in a tone the user didn't like (or so they say, who really knows).

The other point is that there really isn't good discourse on Hubski. The 'culture of politeness', as you called it, doesn't really help with actual discourse, only the appearance of discourse. There's something to be said for being able to go at it in a discussion, provided neither party is openly attacking the other. These sorts of discussions cannot happen often on hubski (despite what a few will claim). They'll happen only when two people who have the proper restraint meet each other. The second one of them doesn't have the proper restraint, you have a potentially good discussion that's cut short.

Hubski will devolve into something similar to reddit, just along different lines. Atleast on reddit I'm able to state my opinion without other users being able to simply click a link to shut me out of the entire discussion.

For someone who actually values intellectual discourse, I'm here to tell you that hubski isn't what I look for. Reddit is more inline than hubski will ever be, for the reasons I layed out above.

Reddit has it's issues, but atleast there you can be involved in actual discussions that don't involve both sides worrying about whether or not the other is simply going to remove their ability to be involved in the conversation.