dang, did this thread get manually removed from Hacker News? It seems to have disappeared. If it was intentionally removed, I'm disappointed -- this seems like a really important discussion to have, regardless of how controversial it is.
It set off the flamewar detector. We sometimes turn that off when a discussion is substantive, rather than a flamewar. But in this case I have to agree with the software.
Yes, it's been flagged - ironic, given the nature of the subject matter.
No, it hasn't been affected by flags at all.
Maybe I don't understand the flagging system then? This literally has the word "flagged" in it: