3 ms·

> Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority” > and s

• NeutronBoy 11y ago
  > and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person” And sometimes, people who think "I'm not going to treat you like an authority" are in fact not treating that authority like a person. It's a very fine line between not respecting authority and not respecting a person. If you disagree with a policeman's authority, the correct way to challenge that is to acknowledge that you disagree with them, and respond in a professional manner - formal complaints, courts, whatever. Not by being difficult to them on the side of the road. If you disagree with their treatment of you (respect like a person), the correct way to deal with that still isn't to argue on the side of the road. If they aren't treating you with respect (as a person), why would you think that getting into a confrontation with them in that environment is going to change their mind? (Have you ever seen a sporting referee change their decision after a player argued with them?)
• jessaustin 11y ago
  The word "respect" is problematic, partially because of this ambiguity. Another problematic aspect is that it inherently sets up a relation between people: it's a transitive verb. To respect someone is to make them somehow important to one's own thought process. (There are cases in which that importance has been earned; a random interaction with police is not such a case.) I try to respect no one, but to be courteous with everyone. Courtesy is a goal to which I can direct myself. Rereading what I just wrote, I recognize it as a very privileged statement. Just the same, we'd live in a better world if everyone could feel that way, if they chose.