“Respect” is commonly used in two wildly different ways. To some, it means being treated as an authority. To others, it means being treated as a person (aka common fucking courtesy). Then there’s the absolute shitstains who say “If you won’t respect me, then I won’t respect you,” and what they mean is “If you won’t treat me as an authority, I won’t treat you as a person.”

Being treated as a person is given. Being treated as an authority is earned. And if you don’t do anything to prove you’re capable of being an authority, you don’t deserve to be treated as such.