Well Shut My Mouth!

I must have received a copy when I was little but if so I lost it and thus have been flying blind for years. I'm talking about The Rules of Conduct for Humans on Planet Earth. I am often -- no, let me change that to I am constantly -- excoriated for being "too judgmental." This condemnation confuses me. Exactly when does one cross the line from ordinary discourse into being too judgmental? And how can one not be judgmental and still remain alive? (i.e., "Look out, that bus is coming at us really fast!")

Isn't everything we do or say an implied judgment? Let's say you're out for breakfast and the server arrives to take your order. If you ask for an omelet without cheese and with extra spinach, you are implying that you find cheese somehow inferior, which is why you don't want any, while you think spinach is the bomb. You are judging all of these foods, plain and simple. Or perhaps you're out shopping with a friend and comment that the sweater she has chosen looks lovely on her in the red but you strongly dislike it in the blue. Too judgmental or a helpful critique?

Do we all have to embrace every movie, every book and every person we meet? Should we be like an old friend I finally dismissed for her lack of discrimination who deems every single thing regardless of merit as "brilliant," even when whatever it is is clearly not? Is it permissible to say, "I hate cold weather and prefer a warmer climate?" How about, "The acting in that production sucked!" Is that too much?

Is it written in The Rules that we simply keep our opinions to ourselves, except pertaining to our national whipping boy Donald Trump, about whom we can say the most horrid things and receive a high-five and a pat on the back for it? I'm asking because I'm really tired of hearing this particular criticism, especially from a bunch of thin-skinned, no-nothing scaredy-cats with half my intelligence and twice my insecurity.