Here's why a lot of people think the aliens won't visit us
...and it all comes down to self-loathing.
Any conversation about UFOs and alien visitation takes at least one detour into the reasons aliens don’t come here. There are, of course, sound science-based reasons (mainly to do with the fact that the distances involved are just too damn far). But some like to brush these aside, and explore the possibility that not coming to Earth is a choice the aliens have made.
Humans go to war. We have stupid tribal differences. We pollute. There are all kinds of failures in all kinds of systems that humans have developed. And so, the notion is, the aliens have decided they don’t want anything to do with us, and that’s why they haven’t come here.
OK, this is a horrible, horrible take. And I’ll even grant the brushing aside of the physical reasons they can’t make it here. Is not visiting us because of how horrible we are really the choice they would make if they could?
If they even know what a horrible civilization is, it would be because they’ve been one themselves.
In my UFO movie, we spend some time talking about this. We have exactly one data point for what rubric a civilization might use in their decision tree to visit another that they could: ourselves. Our rubric is simple: HELL YES we would visit an alien civilization if we could! Who wouldn’t???
Would we make pedantic, judgmental decisions about their culture before we’ve even had a chance to get to know them, and abandon the most amazing milestone in human history? And miss all that science? And miss learning all we could from them, and teaching them all about ourselves?
Of course we wouldn’t. But, OK, maybe some other civilizations might. I doubt it, but it’s possible. In fact, of the hypothetical alien civilizations out there with the ability and interest to visit other worlds:
Some might be hostile. They might want to kill us or destroy Earth or something.
Some might be super sociable and would jump out onto the White House lawn and set up relations and exchange knowledge and cultures. (I think this is most likely. It’s also what we’d do.)
Some might have a Star Trek prime directive and only observe without contacting.
And, yes, I suppose it’s possible that some are going to be super judgmental about other worlds. You know, turn their noses up… They’ve invested infinity kajillion dollars in a space program, managed to locate a civilization they can reach in only five generations of astronauts, and that exists at the same time as they do, and then they’re going to suddenly feel too superior when they see a plastic straw in a turtle’s nose, and abandon all of it. (Eye-rolling emoji)
Well, guess what. Not a single alien has destroyed the Earth. Not a single alien has jumped out on the White House lawn, or made any other observable effort to say hello. This being the case, and saying hello being the seemingly most common first contact, I’d say it’s more likely that nobody has managed to visit us yet.
…and vanishingly unlikely that the very first to try and do so would also happen to be galactically judgmental.