Try this scenario:<br /><br />You’re watching your favorite TV show and suddenly <b>their</b> signal overrides the TV station’s and you’re hearing a message telling you that aliens are here and they want to be friends, etc., etc. You get miffed because somebody’s idea of a joke just interrupted your favorite TV show. So you change channels – only to find that the same message is on every channel. Now you’re shaken, maybe even outright scared. So you go to the radio and there you find the same thing. Yup, I bet you’d be scared. But within the hour it’s over.<br /><br />Next the president gets on the air and makes a speech. He tells you that terrorists took over a satellite and broadcast that message. Hmmmm. Really makes the president look like he’s winning his war on terror. In any case, it’s going to make the government look bad if they have to admit that they, at least for an hour did not have control of the airwaves. Conversely the government might try to get you to dismiss it by <i> what means?</i><br /><br />Now maybe you’d believe the government’s line of BS and maybe you wouldn’t. At this point you’re correct – most people wouldn’t know what to believe. <b>But</b>, the aliens included their right ascension and declination in their message. Guess what – there’s enough amateur astronomers around that <b>very</b> quickly a large number of non-government people are going to look for themselves and see that yes, indeed there is a group of ships park out there – just about a half an AU away.<br /><br />No matter how you go about it, the world at large is going to know the aliens are there and largely accept that fact within a few days. The only remaining problem is whether or not the people believe they really come in peace.<br /><br />Guess what – no matter <b>how</b> they approach humanity, that question is still going to be a problem. And even if the government says they come in peace, like I said, most people distrust the government anyway.<br /><br />In oth