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I think “Thou shalt not judge” is one of those wimpy, fearful, courage-free ideas. The potential of a human being is in commenting, translating, judging the world. Not only should you not shy away from judging, you should do so as much as possible -- as long, of course, as you’re not harming someone else by doing that. You see, it is not necessarily important to walk a mile in another person’s shoes to know that that person is out to lunch or that their shoes don’t fit. It’s possible to know those things without actually having to do that. So I think that an unwillingness to judge only reflects a lack of courage and it’s the disease of a politically correct culture that is afraid to offend. I think you should critique as much as you are able to observe, and not shy away from it. In a true democracy, you’ll get equally strong opinions coming back at you, and you have to survive the clash. It’s your prerogative as a free person to spout off and even make an ass of yourself if you like, but you’ll get your corrective if somebody equally free is also speaking. And it’s not that we should be intentionally offensive to one another; we should be candid. The genuineness of democratic discourse is in candor. It’s not in avoiding offense.
-- Andrei Codrescu
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