Alien civilisations - out of touch robots or more relatable than we think?

I've seen many people believe alien civilisations are these supernatural, extremely powerful beings who all obey a planet-wide empire with superweapons - but is that really true? Well, we don't know, but here's my speculation on why alien civilisations are probably not like in the movies:

Part 1: Evolution and psychology

Movies like these almost always portray aliens as these unempathetic, lifeless and emotionless creatures, but why would that be? Intelligent life has to be formed through evolution, and for a species to evolve into intelligent civilisation-builders, they'll likely also evolve to feel emotion like we do, as that makes a species more intelligent in the first place - self-awareness. Also, self-awareness plays a big role in starting a civilisation more advanced than an ant-colony, so that makes it even more probable. 

Curiosity is another big player when creating a civilisation (and curiosity is an emotion, playing deeper into my previous point), and it should be expected to be a trait that they'll likely have, that could also play a role for if they ever come to interact with us - not immediate genocide, just getting to know each other out of curiosity. 

And the thing is: if they feel emotion, they are likely smart enough to feel things like love and hate, which will be talked more about in part 2 as it plays a massive role in an alien civilisation.

Part 2: Politics and civilisation

This is a big player when it comes to any intelligent species - being able to start a civilisation. Alien civilisations are usually portrayed as this unified authoritarian planet-wide empire - but that seems extremely unlikely, in my opinion. 

I think a single civilisation can be planet-wide if it's advanced enough, but I don't think it'd be without its own divisions - a species that's spread around a planet in huge numbers probably won't all look, communicate and think the same, just like in our human society. I think they'll either have some United Nations equivalent or they have a planet-wide state that is more like a federative state / commonwealth instead of one full on centralised empire.

This may also impact their contact with other civilisations, and makes interstellar war even less likely, as that could be a major hit to stability, especially in a democratic system - which is likely if you're ruling over billions (or maybe even more) of a species.

Part 3: Life in an alien society

Politics aside, there are still a huge amount of aliens that all need housing, nutrients etc. - here is where aliens and humans would differ the most. Just Mother Earth alone has hundreds of political ideologies and billions of different worldviews, so are nations run differently depending where you are. I expect aliens to be around the same, which will make them way different than us in that sector, as most of them will have ideologies and political structures we've never even heard of.

Food distribution, the housing market, trade, everything that is needed in a society will most likely not be even close to ours, as there are so many ways to do these things, especially in a completely different terrain and environment. 

Conclusion: Instead of the authoritarian planet-wide empires presented in fiction, alien civilisations are very likely far more similar to our civilisations than we might think.

That was my take on how I think alien civilisations would most likely look like - I may add more and expand on it sometime later, so stay tuned. I'd love to hear your take on alien civilisations, I'm open for discussions.