Cmon peeps, why are we arguing about existence of ET's? This stuff has been declassified already. The asshole aliens work using deception… get you to 'choose of your own free will' to be their slaves and ignore reality. The nice ones believe in the prime directive, and leave us alone to figure things out on our own, unless the bad guys break the rules and over ride our free will, then they do a proportional response.
Sit on our planet and pretend we are alone and unique in ALL of reality, or wake the fuck up and join our brothers and sisters in the stars.
Q asked how close the nearest star is? Only a few years away. A colony ship could make the journey but that is a dumb way to do it. The real answer is the nearest star is right here. Time & space are an illusion .
Read the Gateway Project documents. tons more info if you just look. We don't need to go anywhere to contact ET. Lots of us arn't even full native humans.
There are a lot more extraterrestrials incarnated as humans than you think.