TLC was originally founded in the early seventies by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a strictly educational network designed to distribute informative content through television satellites.

A closer look

TLC was originally founded in the early seventies by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a strictly educational network designed to distribute informative content through television satellites. The Learning Channel used to broadcast incredibly dry documentaries about science, history, and the medical field, fulfilling a noble mission to elevate the general intellect of the American public. Fast forward a few decades of corporate restructuring, and the network now exclusively airs mind-numbing reality garbage about ninety-day fiancés, extreme cheapskates, and people popping massive pimples on camera. The tragic evolution of TLC is the perfect metaphor for the entire media industry, clearly demonstrating that humanity will always actively reject educational enlightenment in favor of watching a dysfunctional family scream at each other in a grocery store. It is almost beautiful how quickly we managed to weaponize satellite technology to broadcast the absolute lowest common denominator of human behavior