Well, Joe, you raise a very intersting point.

The only way to "respect" a fear is to bring the fearer out of or through it. There are several ways to do this. But Fear is no more a place to be respected by polite avoidance than hatred is.

Respecting fear (in the sense of not arguing against it) brought on the worst of the Dark Ages, for example, and any other period when ignorance was elevated to a ruling principle, because the message of fear is not knowing and not finding out.

I know these are pretty broad terms, no excuses offered. But I think the principle holds true.

A