SALENA ZITO: Judgey about the way people dress? You’re killing America.

Fifteen years ago, we didn’t know what people who weren’t like us were thinking, because they were not around us, explains Dane Strother, a Democratic strategist.

“Facebook and 24-hour news and a plethora of news stations and social media has brought focus to those differences. It’s the first time different Americans have ever looked up and seen each other every day. And neither one likes what the other one is seeing,” he says.

Stereotypes are peculiar things. They make targets out of those who are different, be it in language or traditions. And it appears Appalachia remains the last minority population in America for which it is socially acceptable to question intelligence, speech pattern, the way people dress. Their uniqueness.

Last week as the president was delivering a speech in West Virginia, Stu Rothenberg, a respected Washington-based journalist, remarked on Twitter that “Lots of people can’t support themselves or speak English in West Virginia.”

Speaking to me afterward, Rothenberg did not walk back his comment, but he did offer interesting insight. Like lots of people who do not understand why anyone would “buy in” to the president, he was seeking a way to explain it — by dismissing their intelligence.

What he failed to understand is how insulting his explanation is.

The election should have been a cure-all for that kind of condescension, but instead there’s often been a doubling-down on it. People like Rothenberg should be more careful about who they call slow learners.