To be fair, you do need a bit more than a 5th grade reading...¶
To be fair, you do need a bit more than a 5th grade reading comprehension to understand the mechanics of imperialism beyond "some companies make money by selling weapons."
Although, I bet a 5th grader could tell you that "complex" means "not very simple." https://t.co/5M005gY0eq Here's my attempt to distill it to a 5th grade level:
The US is a verrrry rich country. It has a lot of machines and technology and natural resources and people who know how to use all those things to make even more cool stuff to sell for more money, like computers and guns. But how does the US get so much stuff that it can use to make all those products? And how does it get so many people working to make the products for US companies?
The answer is something called "empire." People allll over the world produce stuff for the US. Someone in Guatemala or Indonesia or Congo might go to work every day -- just like people in the US do! -- and work reeeeeally hard harvesting bananas or mining cobalt or making clothes. They don't get paid a lot, but they sure do produce a lot! The stuff they produce gets taken somewhere else by their American bosses: often sold to consumers in the US and Europe, or else used to produce something even MORE valuable.
People in poor countries work really hard, get very little money, and make a TON of money for the US! Why do they get such an unfair deal? Because they don't have many other options. They can't get a better job that pays better, because all the companies are owned by Americans and Europeans. All the land and machines and technology is owned by those companies too! And the governments of those countries work for the US too! There have been a bunch of attempts by these countries to work for themselves without the money going to the US: but then the US comes in with all the weapons they built using the money they got from this unfair deal. The US replaces those governments with new ones that will listen to them, and help them make all that money.
Sometimes they don't even have to use war at all, and can just threaten to take the money and go, leaving those countries to start from scratch with even less! Sometimes the US gives weapons and money to other groups to do the work for them. Rebels and coups and invading neighbors will torment any country that disobeys the US. Then the US has an excuse to come in and "restore peace" -- by putting in the government they wanted all along! They have done this so many times that it just sounds normal to us, but it's actually really bad. So many people die or get thrown out of their homes or have their stuff taken away, just so the US empire can keep making more and more money.