this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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TLC used to be The Learning Channel. Before it was “here’s a bunch of children who are being sexually abused behind the camera,” it was educational outreach. Vocational training. Satellite college courses for people in Alaska and Appalachia.
Then Discovery bought it. Fuck Discovery.
Why do I associate TLC with, like, Trading Spaces and other domestic not-quite-a-game shows like that? Am I conflating it with something else? Also I haven't had "television" in decades now.
Because that’s the slop it turned into. It was a place for documentaries and educational content, just like MTV used to have music. But watching Kate torment her brood of children or Honey BooBoo eat sketti makes the kind of money airing a college lecture doesn’t.
This kind of content taking off and the popularity of the Kardashians were the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the intellectual apocalypse we're dealing with now. We are what we eat, and what you watch absolutely influences how you think and act.
I used to watch Trading Spaces back in the day, and I remember when they started off and they'd actually do a good job, then I think there was an episode where the couple didn't like what they'd done, that got more engagement, then it became a show about neighbors ruining each other's homes, and thus was born reality television.