I like the term "scaliwag," but it has an odd Reconstruction-era connotation that I'm not too comfy with. (Yeah, that's old... but I was a history major, what can you do?) In reconstruction, a scaliwag was a Southerner who aided and abbetted the Yankees. The term bothers me because it doesn't differentiate between people who were trying to get ahead by any means necessary (skimming public funds, pulling scams, whatever) and those who were trying to help out newly freed slaves or modernizing infastructure.
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I like the term "scaliwag," but it has an odd Reconstruction-era connotation that I'm not too comfy with. (Yeah, that's old... but I was a history major, what can you do?) In reconstruction, a scaliwag was a Southerner who aided and abbetted the Yankees. The term bothers me because it doesn't differentiate between people who were trying to get ahead by any means necessary (skimming public funds, pulling scams, whatever) and those who were trying to help out newly freed slaves or modernizing infastructure.
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