Respecting your elders to me means helping the elderly cross the street, and to engage in conversations with them so that they don’t feel lonely for example.

It doesn’t mean adopting their worldview or respecting it. I understand that the phrase meant different things in different eras (obey the patriarch, do not talk back to those older than you, etc.) but we’re not exactly Romans or Confucians here so there’s no need to follow their lead.