Now I don’t mean respect as in, falling over kissing someone’s boots and telling them they’re the greatest people. I mean basic human respect treating someone nicely, calmly. Listening to them, having a conversation and treating someone well.
Someone doesn’t need to “prove anything to you” before you can start treating them well.
Respect a human given right and is only broken when one party starts being hostile
- which ads to another opinon. People who throw around the “I don’t owe anyone shit because everyone’s so horrible to everyone ” it’s probably their own fault cos most human interactions are nice. If everyone’s being a dick to you maybe you’re the problem.
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Dear god I hope that “Treat people like a person” isnt unpopular.
I think the terms “decency” and “respect” are too often blurred in definition. In the superficial understanding of the word “respect”, that’s just being decent, and we do owe that to one another. But in the truer definition of respect, of reverence to and admiration of a person’s actions and who they are as a person, that’s something that needs to be earned.
What you described is common courtesy. Respect is something else. Something more. Something deeper. And something personal.
“Respect is not some side dish that you order at a diner — matter of fact: the louder the request, the slower the service”
Agreed. Sadly, it seems this is an unpopular opinion. Every human being is innately deserving of basic regard and dignity.
I’ll both agree and disagree. I’d say that there is a basic level of respect due as a “this is a person” sort of thing. Anything more than that has to be earned.
Effectively, if we put respect as a scale of 1 to 100, IMO, everyone starts out at 50. You can earn your way up to 100 or down to 1 based on your actions.
Being a “50” doesn’t mean I owe it to you to be treat you well. It means I owe you enough respect not to do anything that harms you. You have to earn being treated well.
What you are describing is civility, not respect.
Civility is an appropriate default position, but you’ll get respect from me only after I determine whether you deserve it. You’ll also notice civility, but you are unlikely to know whether I respect you unless I explicitly say so.