Cosmofunnel.com has its business address in the United States: a country founded on the principle of Freedom. A fundamental tenet of this Freedom is Freedom of Speech.
Indeed, the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees everyone the right to say whatever, and to express themselves in whichever way, they want. Of course the Second Amendment seems to give everyone the right to shoot anyone for saying something they disagree with…but that’s a separate issue!

The basic principle is a good one; and it applies to the listener or reader as much as it does to the speaker or writer. More so, perhaps. Because people should be confronted by ideas, opinions and viewpoints contrary to their own. We shouldn’t run away from the ideas or worldviews of others…much less block them out entirely. We should encounter them…and consider them. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Or better still, what’s the best thing that could happen?
Who knows…we may well encounter ideas and thoughts which not only challenge our own…but actually improve them! We may well discover a viewpoint which opens our eyes to something we hadn’t even considered before.
And at worst…we’ll confront something with which we disagree; which will, in turn, more clearly define and delineate our own beliefs and ideas.
What’s wrong with that?!
Nothing…that’s what.
In fact, it’s called dialectics; thesis plus antithesis equals synthesis: and it has been the underpinning procedure of almost all Western Philosophy since the Greeks.
So why would we need a new feature here on Cosmofunnel to ‘Block Content’??

Furthermore, this new ‘Blocked Users’ feature is somewhat troubling. It seems decidedly mean-spirited, does it not?! Now every member can have on his or her page a list of other members they have intentionally and publicly blocked?!
“Here are all the people I don’t like…aren’t they horrible!?!”
Essentially, this is a crude and pernicious implement of bullying. And there’s enough of that on the internet already!!
These new features seem to fly in the face of the site’s original mission statement: Open up. Expand. Explore. Matter.
One of the reasons I chose Cosmofunnel, above all the other poetry sites, was this line on the ‘About’ page: “There is no ivory tower, and no etiquette to worry about breaking. So join us and let your creative voice be heard.”
Well apparently there is an ivory tower…and it’s just got some new shutters on the windows!!