What if malevolent aliens do exist, and instead of overtly destroying us in ways observable to the universe-at-large, they just sort of low-key manipulate us into destroying ourselves for them.
Discussion
It’s a good theory. They just flew 10,000 years through space so they don’t really need to conquer us within the time of a normal human lifespan. They can play the long game.
It's sort of like Three Body Problem, but the Dark Forest scenario is *obvious* to the invaders, so they just sort of pussy-foot around in ways civilizations that more lawful or higher on the kardashev scale won't get suspicious of.
Or maybe Earth is just a really simple assignment that they give to low-budget departments, so instead of Death Starring us, we get TikTok.