Originally Posted by WyrreJ
If ET shows up, he's going to be enemy #1 whether he wants to or not.
It will probably enough to get most of the world to stop fighting with itself and unite against a common enemy. But it will also probably mean the descent of the entire world into a global military-fascist society the likes of which we have not seen before.
Especially if he looks funny - just look how easy it is to demonize regular humans, if ET is some ugly looking freak the power-grabbers will be calling him Lucifer on talk-radio within days.
The only chance the planet has of surviving a contact with ET is if he looks like an angel. A glowing, golden-skinned, flying, feather-winged angel. Even that may not be enough, the really smart power-grabbers will just spin ET as Lucifier before the fall.