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 fucked his sister

The best part of this saga being, that he almost certainly did

I kind of don’t think this makes it better https://twitter.com/erikcorry/status/1192886510909046785?s=20

Just my opinion!

Here is the sentence that canceled Lord Byron, and then got Harriet Beecher Stowe canceled for trying to cancel Byron https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1869/09/the-true-story-of-lady-byrons-life/305445/

Oliver Wendell Holmes — later a Supreme Court Justice — urged the Atlantic to publish the article because the man loved clickbait and then later referred to the controversy as “Whirlwind Byron” and said it was the worst storm to hit Boston in 50 years https://www.theatlantic.com/ideastour/contributors/stowe.html

If I wanted to troll I’d say the conclusion here is that cancel culture is part of our American heritage and we must treasure it as such

But really, the only conclusion here is that Lord Byron fucked his sister.

/end

Quick correction to make! We regret the error. https://twitter.com/iggytowns/status/1192929715247616001

Lord Byron still fucked his sister, though

I love how people keep quoting Lady Caro Lamb in my mentions without the qualifier that she only ever CLAIMED to say he was “mad bad and dangerous to know” after their breakup

AND she ALSO tried to cancel Byron by writing a novel with a thinly veiled fictionalization of him. The novel got her canceled by the hostesses of Almack’s, a club that was the center of high society, and was not allowed to enter its premises.

History is littered with the canceled corpses of the people who have tried to cancel Lord Byron

The funniest take is the people who are like “how dare you smear Lord Byron on HEARSAY” since the body of historical evidence regarding the paternity of Medora Leigh includes personal letters of Byron’s

I just want everyone to remember this thread the next time they see Pride and Prejudice on TV. The Regency era wasn’t all gowns and etiquette, these people were some of the messiest bitches in history

Oh I don’t know, I think most people don’t expect that in the world of Jane Austen, a significant portion of high society fathered children with each other’s wives and also Lady Caro once broke into Byron’s house because he didn’t want to hit that anymore https://twitter.com/karlbykarlsmith/status/1193015675184394240

I’m glad I could share my love of The Era of the Worst People with all of you