Thanks for the post! Excellently articulated and such an important point…

I’d like to add that I feel there’s more to the motivation than just fear or dislike of the “other”; I think there’s a level to which this trope highlights our own malicious tendencies as a human race. The idea is that we fear alien exploitation or elimination of the human race because it’s exactly what we would do if we discovered and invaded their home! One need only crack a history book to know find a wealth of support for this argument.

I liken it to the popular notion that homophobic straight men dislike gay men because they are afraid that they will treat them the way such men tend to treat women.