this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Or just don’t over-analyze the shit of out every story in existence. Stories are stories because they’re fiction. And this is “explain like I’m five”, that’s exactly the answer I’d give a five year old
People enjoy logical consistency, and shutting down a kids question with "it's fake, don't think about it" is a lame way to respond to questions when you could take the opportunity to expand their understanding of the world. It's also helpful to develop counterfactual reasoning (how would things change if X happened) and fiction allows someone to explore concepts in different ways.
Regardless, ELI5 is "explain in a way that even a 5 year old would understand", not "what would you say if a 5 year old asked the question"