Poll of the Day > I've never understood the saying "respect your elders".

(+) Yeah! (+)

Why would I respect someone just for having been sucking in air longer than I have?

There are people half my age who know more than I do in certain subjects, and people twice my age who are immature idiots unworthy of the smallest iota of respect.

Respect should only be given on a case by case basis, not just because a person is part of some group, whatever that group might be (this also applies to disrespect).
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Some elders (like George Soros or 95% of our government), I cannot respect at all.

Think about how much smarter and more experienced you are than you were at this time last year

Now think about you compared to yourself ten years ago

An older person might not be smarter than you, but they are most probably wiser and absolutely more experienced

Yeah this old guy tried to tell me swords are cool and I was like fuck you dude only fucking dorks like sword so get bent old man

I swear old people are so dumb
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MICHALECOLE posted...

Think about how much smarter and more experienced you are than you were at this time last year

Now think about you compared to yourself ten years ago

An older person might not be smarter than you, but they are most probably wiser and absolutely more experienced

Unless if they have dementia.

Unfortunately, both of my grandfathers have that.

Well it used to be that you would get cracked across the face for being a snivelling punk kid, and having a random elder do it meant you pretty much failed as a parent and your child is failing as a human being.

Dreaming_King posted...

Why would I respect someone just for having been sucking in air longer than I have?

Because they've been accumulating knowledge longer than you have.

Dreaming_King posted...

There are people half my age who know more than I do in certain subjects,

I half expect most people half your age know more than you do when it comes to a good number of subjects =p

Otherwise, that's specific knowledge vs overall knowledge. The longer somebody has been alive, generally the greater their overall knowledge is because they've seen far more. As such, a person knows more at 60 than they knew at 50 than they knew at 40 than they knew at 30 than they knew at 20 than they knew at 10. That doesn't mean that they're an expert on every subject, but their overall understanding has generally improved with age and therefore a person of equal circumstance will have a greater overall knowledge at later ages.

MICHALECOLE posted...

Think about how much smarter and more experienced you are than you were at this time last year

Now think about you compared to yourself ten years ago

An older person might not be smarter than you, but they are most probably wiser and absolutely more experienced

This, plus it's also a matter of paying it forward. There's an incentive to treat the elderly well because sooner or later most of us will be elderly and reliant on others.
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They are talking about life experience, not if you happen to know what the square root is of a number and someone 20 years older than you doesnt.
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You have some of the worst topics on this board
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I don't care if they are older, if they're a dick they deserve their responses.
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Respect must be earned.
If they're old then I'm happy to follow the standard 'offer your seat' sort of behaviors because frailty but anything else is on a case by case basis. If you're an old idiot then I'll treat you like I would any other idiot.
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Syntheticon posted...

Respect must be earned.
If they're old then I'm happy to follow the standard 'offer your seat' sort of behaviors because frailty but anything else is on a case by case basis. If you're an old idiot then I'll treat you like I would any other idiot.

Disagree. Respect must be lost.

Respect everybody unless they give you a reason not to.

Dreaming_King posted...

Respect should only be given on a case by case basis, not just because a person is part of some group, whatever that group might be (this also applies to disrespect).

In general I agree with this. Respect is earned not given. This doesn't mean I'll be rude to people just for the sake of it but on that same note I won't give you a free pass because of your age, race, sexual orientation or anything like that. If you're cool with me I'm cool with you no matter what group you fall under.
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