Well first of all, I got the city wrong so its really not applicable here. But also more broadly, your point is basically why Teotihuacan is so interesting to

Well first of all, I got the city wrong so its really not applicable here. But also more broadly, your point is basically why Teotihuacan is so interesting to me! Not because of aliens, but because its fun to think about how the Aztec/Mexica people were as displaced from the origins of that particular place as much as we are! But yes absolutely with you: even more so than attributing it to a particularly American decadence (which is a little too pat/editorial column to pass my sniff test, but ymmv), the whole impulse to Ancient Alienize things seems to me to be a kind of mystification which sustains, ultimately, racist/colonial stereotypes of ancient non-white people. It clearly serves to sustain a certain idea of civilization, rather than overturn or disrupt it. Either way, its an important point, and happy to be your punching bag so you can make it!