I just wrote the sentence below in reply to another post in regards to the UFO phenomenon. But it is actually suited better for this post so I'm going to include an edited version, and expand upon the notion some more.
The whole UFO topic should be finally taken a little more seriously by society in general after the latest news about the latest DOD/Pentagon UFO program, it ended in 2006 but it has only just been disclosed to the public, the news was release by the new york times and a few other reputable publications. but it signals a new era in the subject as unlike the previous research programs that ended up being used as disinformation tools (Sign, Grudge & Blue book), generally ignoring the cases they couldn't explain and publicizing the ones they could.
However this latest program is different as the people that were in charge of running it are telling the world of the facts & the anomalous nature of the phenomenon, and heavily implying that we might not be alone.
Although the people that were in charge of the investigations in blue book also became true believers. The air force captain that was in charge wrote a book saying as much and his career and life were severely damaged for the fact. And blue books scientific advisor (J. Allen Hynek) was originally a skeptic also became a believer, and became a big part of the investigative community.
However the topic of aliens is still a tricky one as just 'aliens' and their future technology doesn't really cover the gamut of weirdness that is the UFO phenomenon.
I think I might write a blog post on the topic and expand upon this even more.
Thank you very much @flowstate for your long comment which is very interesting. I voted it full power.