[The Conversation] - First contact with aliens could end in colonization and genocide if we don’t learn from history

To be fair, science fiction has been trying to tell us this since HG Wells.

Given this, we might find this isn't so theoretical: https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-rounds-introduce-new-legislation-to-declassify-government-records-related-to-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-and-ufos_modeled-after-jfk-assassination-records-collection-act--as-an-amendment-to-ndaa