4channel, I'll frame this in how I perceive what your post says. I don't wish to imply that you intend to create that perception. It is entirely possible that you are not aware of the subtext that your post was sending.
โLook, I disagree with what Russia has doneโ sounds as though you are trivialising it. Dismissive language includes the use of minimising words, words that signal Oh, all right, it's a bit bad, but don't make it seem bigger than it is. When โLook,โ prefaces โI disagree with what Russia has doneโ, whether you are aware of it or not, that is the impression that is being given: the trivialisation of the rest of the sentence.*
In fact, the trivialisation goes further.
- Using a minimising word to trivialise the rest of the sentence;
- Generalising what you are condemning - โNo invasion of another country is justifiedโ - rather than sticking to the current invasion and bombarding of Ukraine by Russia, because generalising takes the focus off the current invader and current invasion;
- Condemning, but in a way that does not have much force behind it. โ... and I do condemn Putin for thatโ - note the use of the softening โdoโ before the verb โcondemnโ and the narrowing โfor thatโ which signals that the soft condemnation is only within certain parameters;
- Using the word โbutโ directly afterwards, signalling that everything said before the โbutโ is to be topped or negated by what is said after the โbutโ; and
- Blaming the victim. Because no country is perfect or โrighteousโ, use that to make a statement that plays right into Putin's handbook for justifying his actions. โUkraine is not a righteous country either.โ A parallel is perceived to be drawn between Russia's increasingly brutal invasion and Ukraine's defence against that invasion - or perhaps you are drawing a parallel between the brutal Russian invasion into a country that is NOT THEIRS and Ukraine's military trying to quell insurgency of Russian nationalists in two of its cities. I must say this... That is no parallel; there is no justification there for Russian invasion. Blaming Ukraine for the invasion or suggesting in any way that Ukraine asked for it or deserved it is categorically wrong.
Bear in mind that I continue to speak about perception. That is how I perceive what you wrote, and I think it is how quite a few others will have perceived it as well; I am prepared to be corrected in that you didn't intend to create that perception.
This is not about the US invasion of Iraq. For the record, I did not support that, and was sceptical of the reasons espoused for that. Whatever reasons there were for the US to start that war, they were not the same as the reasons Putin had for starting this war, and we would be fools to think that they are identical situations. Let's focus on Ukraine/Russia.
*Let me give an example of the trivialising effect of โLook,โ before the rest of what is said. Consider how different is the effect when a murderer says in court โLook, I'm sorry about killing your sonโ, as opposed to โI'm sorry I killed your sonโ. In the first example, it's insultingly dismissive.
