Incidentally the earliest mention I'm aware of is Martyn Fogg's Interdict Hypothesis of 1987. I read it when it came out (8th grade!) and it seemed so obvious that I lost patience with pretty much any Mars Attacks!-type scenario. This was, of course, a year after V, in which aliens cross light years to steal our, you guessed it, water.I don't think life is that sparse, and if I were an advanced species that came across humans, I'd leave them alone on principle (please clap). No but if there were an ethical galactic order, I guarantee you that it'd afford some protections to us mudcrabs, currently reveling in our own filth and squalor, until we grow up as a species.
I'm saving sci-fi lit. for post-grad. I also have your red-pill reading list pinned. (before "red-pill" was incel'd, r.i.p. another good sci-fi reference)