I imagine the conversation went like this -

Physicists: "There is no credible evidence for extra-terrestrial life."

Science Journalist: "Could aliens be among us and they are just undetectable?"

Physicists: "Psh. I mean if you are going to say that then you might as well say that invisible gnomes are using moonbeams to make chutney. Hell, for all we know aliens could be using black holes as quantum computers."

Science Journalist: ...

People are not going to process information until it directly changes their lives. Only then will it start to feel real IMO.

"Why give poor people money when they can just die?" -Rich people for the last century.

Yeah but what if Elon Musk kills like a thousand more monkeys tho?

Private ownership is not determined by a piece of paper or computer code. It's determined by who has the physical might to enforce contracts through police or military. People are so capitalist-pilled that they think private property is magical. Unless the government gets involved and decides to start arresting people who screenshot NFTs, they will always be worthless. But the moment that happens, NFTs will still be worthless as the entire point of NFTs is to create an independent system of private ownership without state or government intervention. It doesn't matter if you have proof of a legitimate claim to ownership on something. Your claim is only as legitimate as your ability to stop others from stealing from you.