I guess a century or so of mostly alien invasion stories - to say nothing
of what the Europeans did to much of the "primitive" world - hasn't lost
its grip on the human mind.

It is one thing to have a group of the same species cross a mere ocean
to encounter another group of the very same species and duke it out
for territory and resources. It is another to expect an alien species to
cross the ocean of space in a galaxy of hundreds of billions of star
systems just to come after one world that is already occupied.

Whether any ETI's intentions towards us are peaceful or otherwise, it
isn't going to make much of a difference. If they are peaceful, we'll
finally get to grow up. If they aren't, then you tell me what we could
do to stop them?

All they need to do is attach some rocket motors to a few NEOs, aim
them at our major population centers, then wait for the dust to settle.
Or release a virus that's deadly to us but harmless to them (especially
if they are not organic) and wait again.

But I really, really don't see the point in "invading" Earth when they
have a whole galaxy to utilize. I bet there's more than room and
resources enough for everybody.

As I have said before, an advanced ETI will likely have very little to
either say or do for or to us. And we sure as heck wouldn't be a
threat to them, or even an annoyance.

Now the other fear, that if we find an advanced society with all their
fancy, superior gadgets that we'll just curl up and die from feeling so
inferior.

Do you really think that will happen? Are we that primitive and insecure
a species that learning something new from an alien species will cause
us to get really depressed and suicidal? If that's the case, then we
should just tear down all the rocket facilities, burn the observatories,
and smash all the science labs, because otherwise we explore and
learn if it's just going to cause us misery and self-inflicted extermination?

We may be primitive enough to envision conquering and destroying others,
but I have to think that anyone who can master interstellar travel is just
a little bit beyond that attitude. I could be wrong, but I am far more
concerned about the clearly dangerous species on this planet doing us in
than any invading aliens from outer space.