I am developing a linguistic analyses of a particular internet stalker on Craigslist. You can read the posts just before this one for back story.
Stalkers do leave clues, even when they don’t mean to, and ESPECIALLY, when they try to hide behind anonymity.
As a fan of anonymity, AND a free speech advocate myself, I would be the last person to censor a persons opinion, or a persons attempt to limit a political view, or whatever, but in the case of this particular stalker, they have taken extreme measures, and extreme measure call for extreme responses.
So, here, for now, is a basic list of phrases that this stalker uses–and these phrases, like all language, are indicators of certain aspects of personality, or educational level, or aspects of “regional dialect,” and so forth (see, I just used a regional phrase–‘and so forth’, which is commonly used by pedants everywhere who get tired of explaining stuff; also used as shorthand for people who know the topic, and who are able to fill in the blanks)
Here is a short list of these indicators that I have gleaned from this particular stalkers language from todays posts alone, and my tentative analyses of those phrases:
Before I get into my list of phrases, I would like to thank my stalker for this complement:
“You are so wise, just* and emotionally stable” This would be true indeed. If this person were anything but a dangerous pervert, or a potential murderer, I would respond to it in a decent way–but from post 1, onward, they have been an insulting, bullying, useless waste of time. However, I will note that this stalker uses the colloquial use of the word ‘just’, which I will discuss below.
1) think that it high time
High time? Or High Times, the magazine? In this case, I am dealing with a moron with the basic reading skills of CL. So definitely not someone who reads other material, much less the works of Shakespeare ( where we find the phrase “It’s High time” in the 16th century), or that bastion of liberal thought and analyses, High Times magazine.
No, this use of the phrase comes from someone who has never read ol’ Shakes, but rather, likely got an education from The Beverly Hillbillies, and Jed Clampett . Just imagine ol’ Jed ” It’s-a high time you blah blah blah…”
Verdict:Rural, white person, or white person not-far-removed from hillbillies
2)trying to make this place holy…
This is a very peculiar, insular phrase, and is what it indicates: a phrase from someone who has a religious affiliation–not an atheist, not a thinker, and someone who has likely never read the Bible, but has some familiarity with it, or with those who quote from it, but never read it. Also, this phrase is a total projection on the part of the speaker–as if in their own mind, they are about to put the feer of the lawd in me; about to chastise me for my attempts at (*gasp) trying to make sense!
And the last thing on this earth you will ever find me doing is making things “holy”
Verdict: Religious nutjob
3) That’s some language…
Yes, Jed Clampett ” that’s some language thar thet I be usin’ fer sher…” as if the speaker–being an under-educated moron, is shocked to see words that go together in some form other than a ranting hill-folk patois.
Verdict: again, white, undereducated, and of the generation that has a passing familiarity with the Beverly Hillbillies, or any of a number of other bad TV shows from the 1960’s. someone in their mid thirties, to ?? possibly 70’s.
4) I can just tell by the way you violently lash out at…
Lil’ perjection thar Jed? Here we have a common midwestern word grouping. whereas one could say ” I can tell that…” Or ” your words indicate…” or any of a number of other educated phrases, this elaboration in phrasing suggests rural Mid-western associations–an attempt by the speaker to put more words together to sound smart, rather than putting smart words together. Oh–and a heapin’ helpin’ of projections in regards to violence–trolls, feminists, and morons always interpret educated or descriptive words as ‘violent.’
Verdict: again, white person, probably rural, probably ashamed of a poor education, and violence is in their thoughts.
5) Just because…
I will simply note that the speaker uses the phrase ‘just’ quite a bit, which I will address in the next phrase
6) just Grow up…
I like this one a lot. It appears in 50% of it’s various posts and hate mail, and it indicates many things about the speaker a) they are focused on maturity versus immaturity, so I could be right–they are old, or at least, addled b) they are again using the word just c) they are projecting their opinion of me as a speaker, and somehow concluding that they are more mature than I. Which, of course, is rather moot, because I never tried to project maturity, and it doesn’t concern me–it does concern them, and the idea of JUDGEMENT.
The word just, is the root word of justice, after all, so see point number 2 above and the religious issue.Justice is a theme for this stalker–in fact many rapists and stalkers, etc. have serious issues of ‘judgement’, and particularly, religious judgement on their minds.
7) My advice is for you….
Did I ever ask this stalker for advice? No–and people who offer unsolicited advice envision themselves in some role of power–as if they know their own head from their ass–when they don’t. And, as some will tell you, mothers often offer unsolicited advice ( .pdf here)
I posted as a researcher, got some great responses from healthy people, and then–WHAMMO!–my very own pro-pedophile crusader who has chosen my postings to flag and harass! Did this stalker/pedophile/rapist type person ever offer a story, or a link, or anything of value? Nope.
Did this stalker choose to flag the posts that others left on CL–the posts that condone teenagers getting shot in the head, the posts recommending that women get beaten, or the posts that threaten to rob the homes of others? Nope.
This stalker chose me( lucky me!!) to stalk, and harass.So, the unsolicited advice is just another social no-no that this stalker is unaware of. So here, courtesy of Cracked online, are the five types of people who give unsolicited advice: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-types-people-who-always-give-terrible-advice/
Unsolicited advice almost always comes from people who are too cowardly to show their real face in public