Is it possible to go through life without judging others?

Nah, it’s human nature.

No way, even if you try to refrain, you will still do it in your head. Even if it’s not aggressive, you may still see something that clicks in your mind: “Hmm, I wonder why he/she wore that?” Totally innocuous, and just asking a question.

(psst – “to live your life”) I have not found it so, but there certainly are people who are less judgmental than I.

The thing I try to do @SuperMouse is to remind myself that if I had walked in that person’s shoes, living their life, I would fully understand them and my “play” button would be registering what they register. However, it “ain’t easy” and @Blackberry has stated it very well.

If we didn’t, we’d probably have gone extinct.
It’s a survival mechanism that’s become a little distorted in our “soft” times.
The need to judge predators has shifted to judging much more trivial things.

Though you could also argue that judging people because of their religion can be attributed to some survival instinct too. You know. Like how those gays are threatening your way of life.~

What we call “judging” and, yes, really is judging is also a form of sorting and patterning. We identify and tag behaviors that we find less than acceptable and reinforce not agreeing with them or doing them by defining them. It’s not always OK to say it out loud, but it’s not always bad to feel it.

What you can do is examine the feelings of judgment and see what in your life if causing them (fear? envy?).

And you can not act on them.

I pay attention to this all the time, part of ongoing awareness work.
My answer is, to pass judgment on others preferences, lifestyles, living and spending habits, relationship choices, etc. is not our business….BUT…always the infamous “But”.. judging others actions and behaviors and determining if they are the type of person you wish to associate with is healthy judgment.

If I SEE, very clearly, red flag behaviors with someone, lying, hypocrisies, double standards, lack of integrity, game playing, you bet I judge…I judge how quickly I can run the fuck away! lol

Even if you label yourself as a “non-judgmental person” or say that you don’t judge, it’s impossible not to. It’s not always malicious, as @Blackberry said, but any time we see someone, we judge them, whether it’s in our head or out loud. We don’t even always realize that we’re judging people, but we do it all the time, every day. There are certainly some that are less judgmental than others, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone is judgmental to some degree.

What @JilltheTooth said.
This is biology, we have to judge. We need to be conscious of our surroundings, and the people in our environment.
Being non-judgmental shouldn’t mean that you don’t judge. That would be a lie, but what you can do is not always stick to your first reaction. You don’t always have to take the first negative judgment you feel and run with it. In my opinion, being “non-judgmental” simply means that you will give someone/something an opportunity to change your mind, without asking.

As much as we want not to be judgemental at some point we do cast judgement upon others at some point. We might not express our judgements to others but we do it in our brain and sometimes we don’t even notice it.

Yes… If you are put in a coma at a young age and for the rest of your life you remain comatose or live in an enclosed enviroment in which you never make human contact.

Out loud? Yes.

I judge people for a living, in my work.

In my personal life, yes, I am judgemental. I am judgemental by not hanging out with certain people. I do sympathize with people, but that does not mean I have to be friends with them.

@JilltheTooth nailed it. Everyone is judgemental. Whether you voice it or not is up to you.

Not for long.

Without judging others? Yes.. Without heeding your own feelings, no. I’d never accuse someone of a crime unless I was an eye witness, then it wouldn’t be a judgment would it. I wouldn’t judge a fool because the term ‘fool’ is relative.

I can’t, but I don’t dwell on it and I rarely voice it unless I don’t know the person in question at all. I might say something quietly to the person I was with or raise an eyebrow at behavior or appearance I didn’t think was appropriate. I try not ever to act on my judgments because It’s just my opinion and I may be entirely wrong.

It is natural and sometimes necessary to judge. We need to assess people and understand their motivations. We need to figure out how to handle ourselves in a situation involving them and whether or not they are trustworthy and believable. However, that doesn’t mean we have to condemn them and put them down. That doesn’t mean we have to take the attitude that we pronounce them good or bad based on our evaluations.

There is a difference between judging people and shaming people for the judgment you make. I can say that there are things you need to learn if you are to understand what I say, or I can say that you are ignorant.

To say the latter is to say that you have no hope of ever understand what I’m saying. The former allows you to save your pride.

In general, I try not to shame people for their behavior. I am pretty good at this in many areas, such as sexual activity or mental illness, or emotional distress and the like.

But I do shame people when I think they are being willfully ignorant. I feel if they don’t want to learn or if they ignore the information at their disposal, then they have lost their right for me to take them seriously. They just don’t want to think, and for me, that is unforgivable. When I’m at that point, I’m willing to shame people.

We always judge. We are always making decisions about another person’s abilities, skills and credibility. We must make these judgments. However, we do not have to shame people when they do not match our expectations. Shaming people is generally a useless thing to do. It doesn’t really help anyone and rarely changes their behavior.

Do I think that if I shame ignoramuses, they will start taking education seriously and start learning the scientific method, for example? No. I think they are hopeless. They have no interest in understanding where knowledge comes from, or in learning how to make it. Or in knowing what it is.

Why do I shame, then, if it is so unkind? I think I shame people because I am totally frustrated by their unwillingness to look at themselves and analyze their own behavior and take into account all the relevant available information. I can’t get change out of them and I’m frustrated, so I take it out on them, hoping to hurt them to get back at them for the way they hurt me.

I’m not proud of it. I try not to do it. But there are some hot button topics that really set me off. Maybe one day I’ll become perfect and be able to control this, but I don’t see that ever happening.

@wundayatta . . . To say the latter is to say that you have no hope of ever understand what I’m saying. The former allows you to save your pride.

perhaps it’s more a matter of nobody cares? no shame in that.

@Blondesjon But if you don’t care, then we aren’t having the conversation in the first place (I hope). I mean, if you ask me something and don’t give a shit about my answer, then, while two wrongs don’t make a right, don’t you deserve my scorn for manipulating me? Or am I just supposed to let you walk all over me, jerking my chain like a trained monkey?

Nope.