A bit of background--Karl Moffet is a it of as bully towards Sam Alexander, our current Nova. But Karl just recently had a frightening close encounter with Beta Ray Bill, even though no one believes him.
So:
Sam, of course, is just trying to torment his tormentor--he's well aware of many, many aliens out there.
But what about the teacher?
Let's be clear that this is Marvel-616, which in recent months has seen:
**The Hulk lead a force of alien warriors to Earth, publicly devastating Manhattan.
**A full-fledged alien invasion by Skrulls, who broadcast messages to the all people of Earth. And the entire world saw Norman Osborn shoot an alien queen in the head, which led to him becoming crazy popular and being put in charge of H.A.M.M.E.R.
**Asgard floating over Oklahoma, and an invasion of surly ur-Asgardians, again kicking the crap out of the entire planet. (Sure, they may or may not be technically aliens--but the question is what do the citizens of Earth consider them? Do they believe that they're actual gods?!?)
**Thanos and his minions taking over the planet whilst the Avengers were away.
All of these were massively covered by the media, and all had to have had some fairly major repercussions--economically, socially--on the whole country, if not the world.
Now, the tiny town of Carefree, Arizona was probably not directly impacted by too much of this. But then again, they weren't at ground zero for 9/11 or the moonwalk, either.
So, when this unnamed "science" teacher to say that there "may" be life out there, that there are "no signs" of regular visits, and to agree with Sam that it's all just media fiction...Really? Is this the guy we want teaching science to our kids? Because, well, that's shockingly ignorant, isn't it?
Or has the government done such a wonderful job of covering everything up, of running disinformation campaigns to hide the truth, that this is a mainstream opinion amongst the normal denizens of the Marvel Universe? "Oh, those New Yorkers, they exaggerate everything!" "Oh, it's just the administration trying to distract us from the economy?"
Then again, the people loved Osborn after Secret Invasion--that was a major plot point, that's why the president gave him the job. And Asgard is just hanging there, for everyone to see...
So, Marvel citizens? Dupes or dopes? Or is this teacher just some outlier...?