Yeah I've wondered about that. I've flagged some BS political stories too and wondered if I was endangering my flagging privileges by disagreeing. I don't really care, but interesting to know.

I have flagging, in the ~1000 karma range, so it still exists. I've hardly ever used it.

I'm not sure that flagging is meant for shooting down topic matter you'd rather not see on HN. And that's why the ability is removed from those who overuse it. Flagging is for blatant spam or personal attacks or other abuses, it's not a content-selection mechanism. Upvotes select content.

Me too.

Fun fact: if you downvote too many people, your downvote button is invisibly disabled for a short time.

I often wonder how badly my personal data set is skewed due to mis-tapping (or clicking) the downvote arrow when I'm trying to get the upvote one.