Comments saying “You don’t have to self-censor here” and downvotes when you do so are a signal. If the downvotes bother you, you can edit your comment. If they don’t bother you enough for you to make such a small effort, then it shouldn’t matter because downvotes don’t do anything - they don’t reduce visibility to your comment and Lemmy doesn’t have a karma system.
If someone else who would’ve done the same thing sees the downvotes and the comments chiding you, then optimally they’ll realize they shouldn’t do the same thing in the future.