I read Twitter a lot a lot, as one does, and a couple of months ago I saw a viral

tweet that made me think I must know more.

It was by the journalist Sarah Young.

It said, people keep asking for my opinion on cancel culture.

And the only thing I have to say is that the Atlantic was nearly

destroyed in 1869 by thousands of subscription cancellations over an article by

Harriet Beecher Stowe, insinuating that Lord Byron

effed his sister.

Then there was another tweet.

The best part of this saga being

that he most certainly did.

Like I said, I had to know more.

This is Decodering, a show about cracking cultural mysteries. I'm Willip Paskin. Every episode we take on a cultural question, habit or idea, crack it open and try to figure out what it means and why it matters.

150 years ago, Lord Byron and Harriet Beecherstow collided in the pages of the Atlantic.

The resulting smash-up endangered in August American publication

altered the reputations of two of the most famous in their time authors that have ever

lived and most lastingly the Smurched the less famous woman at the Story's Center.

At issue were so many of the topics that are still consuming us today.

Civility, celebrity, feminism, fairness, fake news, and bad literary men.

Also, it's hella juicy.

So today, on Decodering.

What did cancel culture look like in the 1860s? Just Between Us.

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