"Only those lacking the skills to partake in intelligent debate decide to flag, and that's only due to the weak ideologies that can't be defended (imo)."

Your opinion is worthless garbage. No one should feel obligated to debate with racists or homophobes. It just deserves a flag and contempt. It's like debating religious nuts or people who think the earth is flat, by engaging you we have elevated the status of your stupid opinions to the level of being something worth discussion.

People are getting flagged for hate speech, it has nothing to do with your political viewpoint. Steemit is not a safe space for hate, it says right on the button when you flag

Flagging a post can remove rewards and make this material less visible. Some common reasons to flag

Disagreement on rewards
Fraud or Plagiarism
Hate Speech or Internet Trolling

What part of that do you not understand?