... we are probably in the Worst Possible Timeline and never venture beyond our solar system let alone our planetary system.
The Vulcans are sitting just outside our solar system and see what's happening and are saying to themselves 'yeah, we'll pass, these guys are doomed anyway'
You win the Back to Reality award. Congratulations, I guess.
A variant would be that we're on the Third Body Problem alternate timeline, where everyone in the Dark Forest already knows about us and don't do anything simply because we are our own worst enemy and will take care of ourselves.
Dystopian future, 90s style: People have to stand in line for their free food. The living space provided isn't nice. Social workers have viable careers but are stressed out.
Late stage capitalism. Back in the 90s the corpos didn't want to squeeze every last drop out of you like they do today. Might be nostalgia, but it feels like this kinda started ramping up around the 08 collapse...
They absolutely did want to squeeze every last drop out of you. They've never not. The only difference is that we've had decades of regulatory capture, unrestricted corporate mergers, and lower tax rates for the rich. So now they're free to squeeze much harder than they have previously.
The opening credits of Enterprise shows the Terran Empire landing on the Moon after winning what would be WW2 for us. I think the point of divergence is well before Zephram and even the 20th Century.
Bell was killed, and another person filled in the role. I believe that we'll have our moment, but it isn't now. Bell isn't going to save us, we need to save ourselves.
So what happens now? Are they going to retcon the Bell Riots like they did with WW3 and the Eugenics Wars? Will they wait a little bit more so they can also retcon the Irish reunification in the same story arc?