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Judgment is but a mirror that reflects the insecurities of the the person who’s doing the judging.

So…

Dear critics: As fellow human beings, we love you, even amid your suffering. But you can take your criticism and shove it.

Dear creators: It’s best to continue to create, even amid the vitriol. It’s okay to accept trusted feedback, but ignore criticism, because it isn’t about you anyway—it’s about the insecure critic. So let it go, and suffocate their negativity by not responding. Or, if you must reply, send your critics a link to this page, and let this short essay speak for you.

And if our words won’t suffice, we can all lean on Theodore Roosevelt for the last word:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

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