Respect: a right or privilage?

I think that everyone should start out on one,fair respect level. Then as time progresses depending on your actions you get more or less respect. All this "Respect your elders and teachers"Bullshit should stop. There all the same as the rest of us.No one earns respect just by waving a finger.

It depends I guess as I can see it from both ways. I've experienced it from both sides but after simple things like going online and seeing all the idiots there I'll lean towards it has to be earned.

Does privilege not come up on spell check? Also, isn't "right" and "privilege" synonymous?

Do we - we humans - even have a coherent definition for respect?

I think I had a discussion like this with Tegumi in my earlier days here. I think I was chastizing a newer user for not showing respect (read politeness and general "listening too the opinion of others") to an older user.
And basically Tegumi PMed me afterwards to tell me off for demanding the newer user to show respect to the older one. That neither were acting in a respectful way towards the other and that I shouldn't be asking people to respect others if those others have not earned their respect through action and discussion.

Took me a while to differentiate respect and politeness and make an opinion for myself of the way to go.

But nowadays, I'd say that respect must be earned, but that everyone deserves to be polite too on first approach and further encounters.

Respect and common curtesy are 2 diffrent things, respect should be earned but curtesy should be a given. And to the trust part I agree completely.

Respect is a common word for maintaining the society at peace. It is something you are responsible to give if you consider yourself a part of the group.
Disrespect on the other hand is what the other person earned for himself.

Respect should be givin to all people upon meeting them, but it shoud be a virtue that you should be able to retract if their behavior causes you feel that they are not eserving of your respect. Respect should not be reprised simply because someone may differ in oppinion or perspective on an issue.

I don't generally care enough to truly respect any of the random monkeys I meet. i'm polite, but for me to actually respect someone, I must get to know them enough to care. if I find, for what ever reason, I don't respect someone, I avoid coming into contact with them as much as possible.

Right,
We should at least respect others as a human being :/

For me, respect is easily given but people quickly lose it.....If people want respect, they must learn to act like adults and carry on about their business as adults. And that means staying out of others business and not starting shit.

"Respect is earned never given"

Kind of depends what you mean by respect. I think we should all behave resonably and curtiously with one another. Some might call that respect. If so then there is the answer.

But then respect might be like those points you earn in crime video games and then it is something to be earned and such. "I respect your work ethic" or "I find your ability to massacre innocents quite respectable" type of deal.

The idea of having to earn respect from others, to show off your supposed merits and so on, seems kind of wrong to me. Being complimented for these merits is fine but iunno as soon as these merits become something to show off, to sell to people it doesnt sit right with me. Respect kind of seems like an ideological trap we live in. You must follow this life path so that others approve of you because of your job, family and possessions. It basically promots conformity and materialism. Romance becomes a tool for proving ones worth as a human to others instead of a bond of companionship and love. Stuff similarly functions to show your financial success rather than to actually serve a practical or asthetic purpose. People try to become doctors not to help people but because it is the ideal modern career. I can go on but basically I dont like the whole competative attitude society takes towards life and I think this alternative version of respect relates to this attitude.

Anything that anyone doesn't HAVE to give you is a privilege but anyone who goes around treating everyone like shit is a total dickhole so I respect anyone that I'm not convinced doesn't deserve it.

Personally I feel like it is a certain degree of both. Everyone deserves some implicit respect, even if its something as simple as not walking into everyone else as you stroll down the sidewalk. At the same time, if someone wants me to truly respect them it takes a little bit of work.

Everybody should be given a base level of respect, but past that, they've got to earn it.

Personally I'm the type of person who attempts to be respectful towards everyone in my day-to-day activities. I might curse and swear at them in the privacy of my car for driving like an idiot... but if I'm interacting with someone I will try and be respectful.

I just feel like people aren't nearly compassionate enough most of the time. I can understand someone having a bad day, or saying things that they don't necessarily mean, etc. I just take people as I see them, even if they're complete assholes.

I don't associate or keep friends who haven't earned my respect though. If they repeatedly act like a douchebag then I really don't want them in my life or around me. I would rather be a happy person than a miserable one trying to justify why people can suck so much sometimes.

Everytime I see "respect should be earned", it's used as an excuse to act like a douchebag.

There's a big difference between "Respect" and Human Decency. Everyone deserves Human Decency; but not everyone deserves your respect. It's a thing that is earned not something that is just freely given by everyone because you exist.

It kind of goes both ways. We are due a portion of respect, as we are thinking beings, and not animals. But more than that should be earned.

Similar to the respecting your elder's thread. I give everyone a certain amount of respect as soon as I meet them. They can gain more or lose some from that point on. You shouldn't disrespect anyone you've never met (no matter what you've heard from rumors.)