This makes me wonder if they are all a bunch of masochist who really want to be second class beings and this is their way of fulfilling the fantasy. The are after all completely degenerates.. Or maybe its a step in a larger plan where they assume that some advanced species will make contact within the next century and that if that species sees them as a weaker and subservient faction, the alien species will give them control.. I recall that being the plot of at least one star trek episode.