"Treat others the way you would want to be treated." "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all." These are phrases that have been drilled into most everyone's mind from a very young age, but it seems either some of us have forgotten them entirely or have just up and decided to ignore them. The feeling of respect should not be something one has to earn, it should be commonplace throughout society but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case.
What really sparked this issue in me was a conversation I heard while I was at work between two associates. They did not try to hide this conversation from me, in fact, they brought it to me. They were discussing how even though they "love" their girlfriends, they would give anything for them to be sexier when they dress, to be better at this, to shut up about that, and it was truly demeaning to listen to.
Unfortunately, I knew this was the way some guys communicated about their love lives, I just didn't expect it to be so blatant and out in the open. They radiated the fact that they did not respect their own girlfriends, but to be discussing it at work, on the clock, in front their female coworker, seemed outrageous to me. Maybe I seem crazy but no, I don't want to listen to the fact that you just use snapchat to keep secret "butt pics" of other girls off your camera roll so your girlfriend doesn't find out.
As I stated before, respecting people in the way you talk to them or about them should be commonplace. Disregarding all races, genders, sexual orientations, and any other differentiating factor because we are all human beings who should all be treated equally and those factors should not determine whether someone is "worthy" of your respect. If that is the way you lead your life, believing everyone is low and has to bring themselves to your standards before you decide to treat them with an ounce of respect, then you need to take a long look at yourself as a person and really contemplate the idea that maybe you're not worthy of their respect.
