And we shouldn't allow this concept to go unchallenged here on Lemmy.
Commenting on an active post is not brigading
Posting a link to something is not brigading
Commenting on something you were linked to is not brigading
The only thing that might be brigading, but isn't because it isn't a real thing, is someone explicitly going, "Hey everyone, go here and harass this person"
It's all fine and good that we have some new rules to keep the peace with other instances but we must fight against 
Ideally if we post on an instance that allows down votes then we should be allowed to down vote. But I imagine the logistics of that would be hard.
nah, downvotes suck. I prefer not having them, period. people should reply if they want to disagree.