For this hypothetical, let’s say it’s not aliens actually visiting earth. But let’s say JWST finds a planet maybe a few hundred light years away, and we can see lights and cities and maybe spaceships or stuff like that around it. So no contact, but 100% proof there’s intelligent life out there. How would humans (and different groups of humans, like conservative Christians) react to this?
I think it'll vary, but speaking as someone trapped in the US, I think there would be a rush to put that life below 'human' in the hierarchy. There would be a manufactured consent - 'they aren't alive like us, so if we have to choose, humans are the priority'
Whether they're useful to capital will determine what happens after that.