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Greetings. We are the Monogatrons. While your species was still toying with fire, ours mastered the science of functioning committed relationships. As the latest planet to develop our app you will now witness the true power of superior intimacy. – Monogatron leader from Rick and Morty

Just who wouldn't want do defect and join the invading empire when the masked enemies you were just fighting turn out to be inhumanly beautiful women? It's easy to stay affiliated with earth when aliens are ugly as hell or if they are a dictatorship. But what if their whole culture was really attractive? What if on top of being easy on the eyes and ears they were really good at statecraft? What if you simply didn't want to stay on this crummy planet where selfish people make everything more complicated? Especially after being shown that aliens have is so much better than us.

Culturally, there is nothing quite as destructive as foreign beauty. Had some traditions to uphold? Too bad. Some pagan women joined the chat. But this specific question is less about culture and more about nationality. Abandoning your country to join your parner's. That sort of thing. Knowing human nature, I can imagine that some leaders won't like that.

The Aluran empire, as they are called, are technically invaders though they is no ill intent behind their visit. They are simply elated to have found newcomers to their prosperous empire which is based based around the virtues of participation and good-will. And it turns out that about 67% of lyrics in every earth song are somehow about love. Close seconds are money, partying and depression. So these very attractive aliens see us as unfortunate lovesick beings. They're here to remedy that. Through interspecies relations!

However, they aren't here to openly share their resources. Part of the reason why their empire is so prosperous is because they lack that patriotic ideology or 'ego'. We act as if we were divided while we are actually one people. To openly share technology with earth is dangerous. We have our own interest in mind. We hoard resources. We fight. All because we have that egotistical mindset. In short, they're not sharing with us until we bend the knee and admit that we're all the same. And the problem is that not everyone agrees, which lead to this question.

If faced with this particular 'problem' how would earth's governments resist?

Your expertise is welcome. I didn't do my military service back where i'm from so I am woefully unqualified to make a proper assessment. I'm also bad a history and social sciences. And being human in general...

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  • $\begingroup$ Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on Worldbuilding Meta, or in Worldbuilding Chat. Comments continuing discussion may be removed. $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch ♦
    Mar 1 at 16:30
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    $\begingroup$ Unless they have some actual power like sirens or succubi, I don't think people would give in that easily. Also, if there is, how would gay men, straight women, and asexual people react? $\endgroup$
    – Crafter
    Mar 1 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ If I understand the question, it is poorly titled. There is a race of aliens that will only let humanity join the utopian space empire, if we collectively ditch our egotistical violent mindset. How do the Earth's governments react? $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Mar 1 at 17:01
  • $\begingroup$ Or do they let individuals join the space empire if they wish, and the government is trying to resist having all its citizens hoovered up? $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Mar 1 at 17:01
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    $\begingroup$ This Q has been closed once, reopened, and in the process of being closed again. The OP has stated that they're in favor of keeping the question closed. It has a lot of problems, not the least of which is that it's too story-based. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Mar 1 at 17:07

3 Answers 3

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A short peace, followed by open war is the most probable outcome

As alien power and authority begins to erode the power of Earth's governments, the governments will quickly find that they are unable to compete with the aliens at politics. The fact that the aliens are beautiful is only of minor consequence. What really matters here is that they are quickly imposing their politics on humans in a way that threatens the established power structures of the world.

There have been several times in history where a government has been so threatened by the pervasiveness of a neighboring culture, that they have chosen war simply because they were "losing" so badly at peace. In the mind of a ruler, losing wealth, power, and influence to ideological conversion is just as tangible of a threat as losing wealth, power, and influence to a military invasion, because it affects the leaders in the same way. While I'm sure there have been many examples of this across cultures, the two wars I am most familiar with that fall into this category are the American Civil War and King Philip's War.

The US Civil War

When the US was founded, the Northern and Southern states had about equal representation and influence in the government. The North generally held the House of Representatives and the South generally held the advantage of the Presidency and by extension, the Supreme Court and the Senate went back and forth between the two; so, economic, political, and cultural representation of these two very different cultures in the Federal government was kept in a sort of awkward balance. But as time went on, the Northern culture took full control of the Senate, House, and Presidency with a strong likelihood of taking the supreme court before the end of Lincoln's term. In the US system, having majority rulership over all 3 branches of government is the same as totalitarian rulership.

The southern state governments went to war not because there was any immanent physical threat, but because they realized that they had lost all say in their own federal government. Likewise, if your aliens begin to use their popularity with the masses to suppress the power and autonomy of the old regimes, then those old regimes will choose war, even if the goal of the opposing party is clearly morally superior.

King Philip's War

King Philip's War was one of the first wars fought between native Americans and English colonists. While most European colonists to America up to that point chose military invasions, the English Pilgrims chose instead to attempt to use negotiation and treaties to for a peaceful and mutually beneficial relationship with the native tribes. This mostly worked for about 50 years, but over time, hundreds of natives began abandoning their native religion and life style and choosing to move into the English settlements and live as Christians.

All these alliances, and the rising dominance of Christianity gave the Colonists a sort of Hegemony status in the region, and posed a fundamental threat to the way of life that those in power had; so, chief Metacomet of the Wampanoag Tribe (who the English called King Philip) lead an alliance of 7 tribes against the English in a war of genocide. 4 of those tribes, including his own, even had formal alliances with the English that they broke to join in this war. Only 2 tribes, the Mohegans and the Pequots honored their alliances with the English and fought with the foreigners.

The will of the people can't stop a government from going to war

Throughout history, when a war strongly serves the interests of the government, but not the people, war still happens. Most people will be to afraid, to indoctrinated, or to concerned about the implications of fighting against their own people to stand against their homeland. That said, these wars may still be very unpopular. There will be protests, and governments will likely need to rely on drafts, violent suppression, censorship, and propaganda to ensure that the wars happen. When you look at how civil wars and wars of cultural resistance tend to escalate, even if 80% of people favor the aliens, it is unlikely that more than 20% of those who go to war will actually fight for the aliens.

Obligatory Star Trek quote:

One thing is certain: we're losing the peace, which means a war could be our only hope.

~ Captain Sisko of the Federation

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  • $\begingroup$ Obligatory nitpick: the Southern states didn't "go to war" initially. They just seceded from the USA. The North refusing to vacate (and, to the contrary, strengthening) military bases on Southern land was what made them go to war. $\endgroup$
    – The Daleks stand with Ukraine
    Mar 3 at 13:38
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    $\begingroup$ @TheDaleks Very grey zone I know... while the North formally declared war on the South, this was following several armed attacks to seize armories and other military assets that belonged to the federal government. Given Lincoln's stance on unity, they knew ahead of time that secession would mean a war, and they chose that path anyway. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Mar 3 at 16:58
  • $\begingroup$ Good point. It's the Civil War; there's no such thing as "clear-cut". $\endgroup$
    – The Daleks stand with Ukraine
    Mar 3 at 19:35
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Never underestimate the power of good old PROPAGANDA.

We humans have a long and rich history of two things: war, and political propaganda, sometimes required to support said wars. Whether the propaganda works or not is another question (and enemies typically employ their own, too) but I feel safe saying that historically, propaganda has a good track record particularly for shorter term results, and in a case like this, humans in power would have every reason to want to lay down thick propaganda in order to maintain their positions of power.

This could be pure misinformation, false flag events, misrepresentation of data, or just regular emotional string pulling, but if the powers-that-be were intent on resisting an invasion that they feared the population would not want to resist, then propaganda is the the way. Of course, the best lies are those based on facts, so expect a lot of true intelligence gathering to take place, as well. If anything can be uncovered, it will be used. If nothing can be uncovered, then the truth can still be misrepresented and used.

Bottom line, we have ample evidence that humans are easily manipulated and while no doubt the invaders may be aiming to take advantage of this themselves, we have the home field advantage: we have way more experience at manipulating each other, and we're good at it.

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  • $\begingroup$ Assuming every government on Earth had the ability to propagandize its citizenry (I'm unconvinced) and assuming they really were good at it (history's proven governments aren't), what the propaganda is competing against is, basically, the ultimate expression of "sex sells." Not too sure there's historical evidence that mere propaganda would be enough. But what's really confusing is, resist what? The OP hasn't explained what's being resisted, only the messengers of the action or message have been identified. What do you think the threat is? Slavery? $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Feb 28 at 15:54
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    $\begingroup$ @jbh I don't think the reasons matter, unless you want to write his story for him. The question is really about the avenues of convincing populations to do things. Whether it's fighting Nazsis, electing the next President, selling shampoo, or resisting alien invasions, the techniques are pretty well proven and I think he'll get a lot of mileage out of examining the uses and history of propaganda techniques. $\endgroup$
    – JamieB
    Feb 28 at 17:03
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    $\begingroup$ I spent 15 years in marketing, which is why I'm shaking my head over your answer. It's short-sighted, especially not knowing what it is that's trying to be "sold" to the people. Speaking on average and not individually (marketing 101), send an invitation for dinner and a no-holds-barred evening to a guy from Angelina Jolie and then the government shows up with a Bible and a spectacularly well written set of propaganda for why he shouldn't go and he'll go anyway. The alien beauties have already used this answer to their advantage and won - unless the OP tells us what's being sold. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Feb 28 at 18:43
  • $\begingroup$ Holy cow, I just read the OP's edits. This is at best the vehicle that brings the solution to the people. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Feb 28 at 18:46
  • $\begingroup$ @jbh Yes? That's what he's asking. He's not asking what caliber of bullet to use, or how best to arrange tank battalions. He's asking how governments would resist. For a pointed example, look no further than North Korea. Or Russia, really. How do they resist Western temptations? Easy! Through propaganda. Your argument is that it wouldn't work. That's not the question, though. $\endgroup$
    – JamieB
    Feb 28 at 19:51
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So, InB4theLock. Also, completely ignoring the plausibility of any of this.

The Aluran empire, as they are called, are technically invaders though they is no ill intent behind their visit.

Are they shooting their blue space babe rifles at you or not? This is not a technicality. For many people it's kind of a big deal.

Their hotness will only work on straight men and lesbian women. Straight women in particular may not be so impressed. The thinking for some of them may go something like "So them there blue space b... um hussies want to take our land AND our men? Aw hell naw." Blue space babes may soon realise they've made a very, very big mistake invading Earth.

As for the men, the hotness of the blue space babes is not as obvious if you're flying a fighter jet attacking one of their flying saucers or shooting missiles at them. Even if it's ground combat, all the body armor and helmets will rather obscure it. Unless blue space babes fight in chainmail bikinis, which doesn't work as well as Korean MMOs would have you believe.

Besides, for a soldier fighting them, OK they're really hot but they're shooting at you. Self-preservation instinct overrides procreation instinct, at least for many people.

For what your blue space babes are trying to accomplish, their best strategy would be to arrange an overwhelming demonstration of their complete military and technological superiority, and then politely request that all the Earth governments allow unrestricted immigration of Earthers to their empire. Even that will meet with a lot of resistance.

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    $\begingroup$ "Straight women in particular may not be so impressed." <- Not only that, but in my experience, women really don't get along well with other women who are notably more beautiful than they are. Woman at least may be more quick to call for war than if the invaders were ugly squid people. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Mar 1 at 21:43

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