<p>The world can be a cruel place, partly because human beings can be really horrible creatures. We love to pass judgment when people aren&#39;t exactly like us, which is totally ridiculous. It&#39;s 2019 and it&#39;s time to stop shaming each other about the following 14 things.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>1. Political beliefs.</h2>

<p>Somewhere along the way, healthy political debates about opposing viewpoints turned into sheer hatred for people on the other side of the aisle. You don&#39;t have to agree with everything someone believes, but you do have to respect their right to vote for whoever they want &ndash; even if you loathe that person.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>2. Sexuality.</h2>

<p>In recent years, the LGBTQ community has had reason to celebrate. Gay marriage was legalized in all 50 states in 2015, and a nationwide conversation has been started about gender identity and what it means. But there&#39;s still a long way to go. People still face discrimination every day for who they&nbsp;love. This is stupid, needless, and downright pathetic.</p>

<h2>3. Income.</h2>

<p>When something bad happens in our life, we&#39;re quickly reminded that very few things actually matter&nbsp;&ndash; health, family, and friends. But when we&#39;re not faced with a crisis, we seem to turn into total jerks who believe money equals success and happiness...and we tend to look down on those who don&#39;t make very much cash. That&#39;s pretty sad, don&#39;t you think?</p>

<h2>4. The car they drive.</h2>

<p>Cars keep getting bigger, more luxurious, and more expensive &ndash; and Americans are in a race to keep up with each other because we think cars equal prestige. The very fact that people can make judgements about a person based solely on what they drive is preposterous. After all, the Ferrari gets you to your destination just as quickly as the Civic.</p>

<h2>5. The house they live in.&nbsp;</h2>

<p>McMansions are out of control. Gated communities with pretentious homeowners associations rule the suburbs. Where a person lives seems to be directly linked to their perceived measure of success &ndash; which is quite silly, considering the recession proved that many people living in huge, expensive homes couldn&#39;t actually afford to be living there at all. A house is just a structure. Love makes a home.</p>

<h2>6. Body size.</h2>

<p>The term &quot;body shaming&quot; is so common that it&#39;s become a household word. We&#39;re all created equal, whether we&#39;re a size 4 or a 14. Society seems to forget that, largely thanks to women&#39;s magazines which publish airbrushed photos of celebrities on their covers every month. The truth is, beauty comes in all sizes (even if Cosmopolitan doesn&#39;t agree).&nbsp;</p>

<h2>7. Skin color.</h2>

<p>It&#39;s incredible that racism is still a thing in America, all these years after the abolishment of slavery and the civil rights movement. Children aren&#39;t born racist; they get poisoned somewhere along the way. Adults need to do a hell of a lot better.</p>

<h2>8. Their job.&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Certain jobs come with a certain level of prestige. There&#39;s the white-collared jobs which command respect and higher paychecks, and there&#39;s the blue-collared jobs which require more physical exertion and don&#39;t pay as much money. But here&#39;s the thing &ndash;&nbsp;the world needs garbage collectors just as much as they need lawyers. Stop shaming people because they make an honest living.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>9. Their past mistakes.</h2>

<p>Everyone makes mistakes. If someone has apologized for any harm they caused and expressed a desire to move on, let them. Don&#39;t continue to make them pay for something that&#39;s in the past and can&#39;t be changed.</p>

<h2>10. Their success.</h2>

<p>When jealousy strikes, it can be extremely ugly. It&#39;s far too common to see people trying to take down someone because&nbsp;they&#39;re jealous of their success. As humans, we should celebrate each other&#39;s achievements.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>11. Their failures.</h2>

<p>When people fail, they don&#39;t feel great about it. They don&#39;t need you reminding them that they could have done better, or done something differently. Respect them for trying, and encourage them to try again.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>12. Their relationships.</h2>

<p>Other people&#39;s relationships aren&#39;t any of your business. Unless someone is being abused, understand that you don&#39;t know the dynamics of the private lives of two people. If one person in the relationship is a real asshole, the other person will probably realize it sooner or later. Until then, stay out of it.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<h2>13. Being single.</h2>

<p>It seems like when someone is single, everyone tries to meddle. Grandma tries to hook you up with a person from her church, your co-worker wants to fix you up with her brother, and your friend feels sorry for you because you&#39;re often a&nbsp;third wheel. There&#39;s nothing wrong with being single, so stop making your single friend feel bad about it.</p>

<h2>14. Anything that&#39;s out of their control.&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Shaming someone for something that they can&#39;t change&nbsp;is wrong, wrong, wrong. It also makes them feel really shitty. So don&#39;t do it. Be kind instead.</p>