The exact way each person defines the terms matters, of course.
My own peculiar set of experiences with "liking" and "respect" have given me a slightly different attitude about them.
I have run into too many people, for example, who straight up use the concept of 'respect,' as a selfish way to use and even abuse people.
What they do is, they declare some aspect of a target person, be it their own misbehavior, or even their ignorance/innocence, makes them someone they don't have to respect as an equal human being. Then they proceed to use the target for their own satisfactions, whether it's something straightforward as using them for selfish sexual pleasure, or injuring them physically for sadistic pleasure, or more subtly, using them politically as a sort of straw man, to make themselves feel self-righteous.
I STRONGLY dislike people who use their lack of respect for someone else in any of these ways, because I have found that none of them are themselves honorable in any aspect of their lives. You can count on people who do these things to abuse you, should it become beneficial to them, and they wont think anything of it.
Several people mentioned showing respect for a person in a particular position, such as an officer of a company. I would refer to this as showing respect for the office itself, for the structure of the institution. This is why I am thoroughly disgusted with people who treat politicians they disapprove of with overt disrespect and derision. I didn't like Nixon after he behaved so badly, but I would never refer to him with disparaging names while he was in office, because that would mean I was tearing down the fabric of the United States itself.
I've never known or seen anyone who indulged in name-calling of any kind, who were worthy of respect for their opinions. All of them were clearly worshiping themselves. Besides, there's an old saying that you can't throw mud without dipping yourself into it first.
Well from what you said Igor, I gather that you disrespect anyone who demonstrates disrespect for others , which I completely agree with
And people do target traits in people and use it as a justification for disrespecting them.
I would even go as far as saying that most types of prejudice adopt this type of reasoning and behaviour.
It is such an ugly part of humanity to observe and it seems to exist everywhere :(
