Sounds like the solution here is 1. Don't get butthurt and 2. Take the high road. Been doing this all my life. Not that hard. Come'on Steemians! Let's get our emotions under our own control :).
I do think there is a way to incorporate the reputation to limit who can flag posts, but I believe a self-policing system is the best system and I don't agree that it should cost SD. Some people really do contribute only trash or plagarized content and that is not what the platform is for.
Fair enough, I'm just opening the dialog here.
But my point was the copyright thing needs to be enforced at the witness level before it ever makes it into the blockchain. If a witness is blocking content that isn't copyright or whatever, then we vote them out. We have that power but deciding what does and does not actually enter the blockchain is a function that rightfully belongs to the witnesses.
Since that's the only "legitimate" use for flagging, then flagging should go away. Replaced with a "downvote" I disagree with you button that does nothing but tick a counter.
I definitely agree with many of the things you said :). I guess my concern is that witnesses are just regular users like us, so why would their judgement be any better then yours or mine?
Adding a secondary downvote button (right next to the upvote) without any penalty to the post or to your steem is a great idea!