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Once upon a time, a half-ass relative told me, "You should respect your elders." Even though I was only eleven at the time, I had enough sense to realize if they want my unconditional respect, they are incapable of earning it.
Among the groups of people who demand unconditional respect are street gangs, old people, government workers, self-proclaimed Conservatives, religious nuts, and nationalist assholes, usually while on vacation in your country.
Nothing pisses these people off more than my usual response: "You want my respect? Earn it!" They don't want to do that, because it undermines their sense of superiority. They're too insecure about their own delusion of authority to humble themselves by acting like a decent human being.
Just to make a distinction: In the case of street gangs, they only claim to want respect. What they really want is fear and conformity. Gangsters want to create an environment wherein everyone is too afraid to criticize them so they can act with impunity. That's not respect. If these assholes wanted respect, they would organize a charity or give scholarships to low-income college students.
Religious nuts are a completely different class of people with a sense of "respect entitlement." Not only do they expect everyone to not criticize their beliefs, but they expect everyone else to follow the rules of their religion, or die. For example, the arson of the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran after a group of Danish cartoonists committed "blasphemy." (Specifically, they drew pictures depicting the so-called prophet Muhammad. More info.) Another example is when Catholics sent death threats to a blogger for throwing a small piece of flour dough in the trash.
Every sentence that begins with "You should respect..." should be struck from usage. The only people who get my respect without personally earning it from me are veterans-- and if you think about it, they already have earned it. (That doesn't mean they always retain it, though.)
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