Wodak and Reisigl discuss cultural stereotypes, prejudices, and convictions and how they are defined by some. Convictions give certain qualities to groups that allows the person or thinker a way to allow themselves to feel negatively about a certain group. When looking at Harney’s article it is relatively easy to see the convictions he holds about people from Appalachia, he finds them relatively unintelligent as well as seemingly stuck in time compared to the rest of the country. Because he believes that they aren’t as smart or as advanced as him this gives him a reason to treat them as less than he would treat a person from the area of the country that he is from. Wodak and Reisigl also discuss that some people believe in an, “in-group” so people that don’t fit their template for how someone should live, act, or look it lowers that persons value of the other person or group because according to this person the other does not belong. Harney shows this as he constantly uses the fact that the language of these people is different from his so he puts them down and it lowers their standing in his eyes and allows him to rationalize treating them differently.