I don’t think this particular comment deserves any downvotes (and I didn’t downvote either it or its parent), but remarking on a comment’s vote status on HN is a general faux pas.

The comment provides negative value, noise with insufficient signal. Getting such comments out of the way is exactly what downvotes are for, regardless of whether the intent was malicious.

And effectively censorship since such a comment will end up as the last child of its parent and with a text-color barely darker than the page background. Or hidden entirely if a couple people hit "flag" instead since "showdead" is opt-in.