Eleanor Roosevelt once said that small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events and great minds discuss ideas.
So when it comes to discussing people, follow the 10:1 rule.
For every one person you discuss, have ten people talking about you.
That's a lot of small-minded thinking going on. Not your fault -- there are a lot of small-minded people in the world. Let them be who they are and just make sure you're not one of them.
How?
Do things that get talked about instead of talking about the people who are doing things.