"They can't."
They most certain can! The ONLY down-vote I received on my last post was from @block-power, and yet the post was still hidden, and my reputation dropped.
" I know Bullionstackers is a comment farmer and a troll."
Then why is he still allowed to be on Steemit? It's members like that who are turning Steemit into such as cesspool, resulting in new members leaving as fast as they come, and ever older members to call it quits and leave. Shut his account down! It will make things much better for the rest of us. No one wants a scumbag like that.
Your rep didn't drop from your latest post, it was from the other flags (on comments I believe).
Steem is decentralized, no one can kick anyone off. You can downvote them and in extreme situations they can be hidden from the Steemit UI but still visible on other front ends.
The sad fact is we have a lot of unstable immature people here and there is no way to do anything about it.
Seeing your post here where you call buildawhale a scumbag and pedophile, I'd flag you myself. Buildawhale has nothing to do with bullionstackers and people who call people they don't like pedophiles are morons.