R E S P E C T -It Means Something Else To Me
This always happens whenever civil rights or social justice issues like race, gender equality, homo/transphobia, poverty, etc. comes up - someone confuses two different definitions of "respect". There's "you're an exemplary person and I admire the shit out of you and/or trust you with more vulnerable boundaries than the general population" respect, which is personal, individual, and earned.
And then there's the respect civil rights people are talking about which is a *baseline* level of dignity and compassion for sentient beings.
Don't fall into that trap, which derails the conversation. If you feel that you have to comment on or explicitly exempt the former in a conversation about the latter, then you are part of the problem we're having with the conversation these days.
We all know and agree that certain individuals get a different, higher kind of "respect" than strangers on the street or even people we know but don't like. Given. Move on.
The disagreement is in where the line of behaviour is drawn for how we treat everyone else. THAT'S what we're talking about now. And we're never going to make progress if we keep bringing the subject back to what we're not complaining or talking about in the first place.
And then there's the respect civil rights people are talking about which is a *baseline* level of dignity and compassion for sentient beings.
Don't fall into that trap, which derails the conversation. If you feel that you have to comment on or explicitly exempt the former in a conversation about the latter, then you are part of the problem we're having with the conversation these days.
We all know and agree that certain individuals get a different, higher kind of "respect" than strangers on the street or even people we know but don't like. Given. Move on.
The disagreement is in where the line of behaviour is drawn for how we treat everyone else. THAT'S what we're talking about now. And we're never going to make progress if we keep bringing the subject back to what we're not complaining or talking about in the first place.