>I feel like users abusing flags is toxic to the spirit of HN...

But it's always going to happen. Same with the upvotes/downvotes. People will flag a post or downvote a comment they don't like, whether or not it happens to be true, relevant or accurate.

The secret is not to let it bother you. At the end of the day your karma ratings here are just "internet points" and flagging or downvoting are just people proclaiming that "Someone is wrong on the internet!". It really is no different to Twitter or Reddit, in that regard. We just like to delude ourselves we're a cut above those kind of sites.