I am tired of being disrespected. I’m tired of being
disrespected in almost every aspect of my life. I’m tired of it at work, tired
of it at home, tired of it online.
I don’t mean for this to sound like some old Rodney
Dangerfield routine (“I can’t get no respect”), because I don’t feel
disrespected by everybody or all of the time. It’s just that there seems to be
a lot of disrespect going around in general. I’m sure others feel the way I do.
It seems to be an unfortunate aspect of our society these
days. Maybe, I’m about to have a Howard Beale “I’m madder than hell and I’m not
gonna take it anymore” moment, but this week the disrespect has seemed rampant.
The Internet is a major source of disrespect in the world
today. It’s a place where simply having a different opinion or viewpoint from
another or the majority can turn you into an outcast or punching bag for
faceless avatars with anger issues. I think that’s why so many people use
social media sites, in particular, these days simply for funny memes, pictures
of cats and random insights into their daily life. Having an opinion on topics –
whether important like political or religious issues to less important things
like sports or television shows – can set the wrong person off on a tangent
toward you.
Well, I’m an opinionated person and I’m going to use the
Internet to post many of these opinions. I’m going to use the Internet,
particularly social media, because I want my voice to be heard; even if you
have to dig through cat photos and funny memes to find it. I don’t want to be
among the voiceless majority, but unfortunately that means I have to put up
with people who refuse to respect my ideas or opinions on such things. Now, don’t
get me wrong I love a debate. I don’t want to have the same ideas or opinions
as everybody else, because that simply would not be much fun for me. But, too
many people on the Internet don’t want to debate you, they just want to berate
you or name call you and make you feel bad for feeling the way you do. It’s
worse when you deviate from the majority opinion on something, which without
ever trying I seem to frequently find myself doing.
For a person not as stubborn as myself it would make them
want to stop voicing their opinions when they’re being disrespected for doing
so. It just makes me want to push my viewpoints harder, but it still irritates
me deep down to be disrespected in such ways.
Still, being disrespected by nameless/faceless avatars on
the Internet is not near as bad as being disrespected in real life or
face-to-face. It may not be as common either, but I think we all get a little
bit of it from time to time – likely in our workplaces (or for those a little
bit younger in the classroom).
In my place of work there are those who are way too good at
disrespecting their co-workers, like they are trying to win an Olympic medal in
disrespect. They are the kind of people with a “me first” attitude who don’t
give a damn about anybody beside themselves.
Sometimes you want to try to give these types of people a
little lesson and hope they learn from it. Last week I tried doing just that. I
learned that one of my fellow co-workers was disrespected by another co-worker
who, if my workplace were a professional sports league, would lead the place in
the statistical category of “disrespect.” At this point I had enough with the
rampant disrespect and saw fit to make a point, because I didn’t think anybody
else would (standing up for others is something this society sorely lacks in,
as well). I made my point in a harmless fashion that basically amounted to a
small prank.
Well, the interesting thing about people who often treat
others with disrespect is that many of them can’t take a little of their own
medicine. So, this person freaked out and made a huge deal out of little to
nothing. I wanted to get a little insight on what this person’s issue was and
afterward was going to drop the whole thing, with my point having been made. When
I asked this person what their “deal” was I was met with one of the most
disrespectful things I’d ever witnessed.
This person actually gave me the “shooing away” motion with
their hand and didn’t respond verbally. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a
grown ass person physically shoo you away, but if you haven’t it will
instantaneously make something in your brain snap and want to get at that
person. Being at work I couldn’t rip this person’s throat out the way I wanted,
which was a good thing no doubt, but I did take a few moments to let them know
exactly what I felt about them and their disrespectful motion.
This person hasn’t had a thing to do with me in the days
since and basically acts like I don’t exist – which is not only disrespectful,
but way too immature for a grown adult.
I wanted to teach this person a lesson, and I think I failed
in doing so. However, I did teach myself a very important lesson in the process
… disrespectful people aren’t going to stop being disrespectful. No matter how
hard you try you aren’t going to cure somebody of their disrespectfulness. I
think half the time these people aren’t even aware of their disrespect or their
selfishness, which leads to the problem in the first place.
It’s not a good moral to this story, but it’s unfortunately
a truthful one. I guess, the best that you can do is just try to treat others
with the respect they deserve and if they aren’t deserving of it just try your
best to ignore it. I’m the kind of person who likes to try to fix problems that
I perceive within the world, but damn it, some problems and some people just
aren’t worth fixing.
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