this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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I think you are right. But I don't think that's the whole story.
I think it is also just the fact that they were the winners of history. And we like winning more than we like being moral.
I wonder why when it comes to "humanity is awesome" variations of sci-fi, we always have to lean so hard on creating a fictional alien race that is somehow worse than humans to prove how "awesome" we are.
Maybe, just maybe, we're kind of fucking assholes.
Those aliens also display a core experience that we have anxiety about: being colonized. Interestingly, Stargate, a franchise partially created by the US Air Force very accidentally portrays what interacting with alien species who didn't establish a system of colonization might look like. There are multiple cultures humanity encounters in that franchise who don't have weapons but have farming implements we can't even imagine. That franchise shows a universe where Humanity leaves earth and discovers we're a bunch of violent weirdos who don't fit in with the rest of the universe. There's some other colonial powers we encounter, of course, when Earth needs to be the good guys. But like... Think about that. We might be so steeped in a system that's been inflicted on us that our first contact with a non-earthbound culture might see that culture being like "so the workers produce all the value, and you beat them up? Why? This doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't they be rewarded for the value they provide?"
I feel like the show does a good example of being entertaining while also showing those stark contrasts between the civilizations like you've commented. Even more so in the later part of "Stargate Atlantis" where it's more "cowboys and indians" style. They're trying to "save" all the planets in the Pegasus galaxy but tend to shoot anything they don't understand and constantly undermine themselves by making poor decisions when it comes to relations and dealing with people. The inhabitants of the galaxy have continued being successful at trade and socializing (except for a few outliers who can still be known to show honor) even while being under constant threat for their entire recorded history.