"You suck LeBron James" Yields a guy in front of the tv when the professional basketball player drops the ball by mistake. The guy, visibly overweight and possibly depressed feels a small dose of comfort after yelling at a random dude who doesn't even know he exists.
There's a brief moment of pleasure when we judge something. When we point out the flaws of a person's journey. We feel better about ourselves. We feel we understand more about life, about politics, about sports, you name it. We feel like we rise above the things we judge.
It is easier to judge, it has always been. But there's nothing virtuous about it.
Nobody has ever changed the world only by criticism.
And the harder truth, nobody has been able to change himself positively by criticising others.
Criticism is harmful to our willpower. It releases us from any responsibility. It separates us from the thing we judge. It stops our creativity, our empathy. It makes us lazier human beings.
It's an ego boost, a hack, a cheap trick to feel better with ourselves.
We all fall for it from time to time, yet criticism is poisonous to the soul. Hundred times more harmful for us than it is to the object of our critic.
It's like self inflected cancer.