Flagging is extremely effective in taking content off the front page. I understand the intention, to quickly kill spam and avoid flame war topics, but it's extremely powerful in even preventing discussion on issues and it is probably a greater contribution to groupthink than downvoting comments is. Agenda setting, controlling which topics are discussed at all, is way more powerful than controlling the range of views expressed on those topics.
I think you can "vouch" for posts and submissions now to counter the flagging. Of course, that assumes you will catch them before they fall off the front page or get auto-deleted.
I was referring to comment flagging, for which there appears to be no recourse (at least from my 140something-karma account's view). Similar problem(?), though.
