In April, the Pentagon released three videos of UFOs which sparked a recurring discussion on whether genuine UFOs exist, and whether they are extra terrestrial in nature. One of the "experts" of Ufology, Alexander Wendt, makes the case that UFOs are infact real, and there is a non-zero chance that they are ET. For this reason, he thinks that it is both concerning and disturbing that the scientific community, and/or anyone in a political, or powerful position, is not dedicating (more) resources to try understand the nature of these UFOs. He calls this the UFO Taboo.
Personally, I find UFOs to be fascinating and sometimes disturbing. My interest is underlined by the Fermi Paradox, which is the question of why up to now, we haven't encountered any intelligent extraterrestrial life. The simple answer-despite secretly hoping otherwise- is that it's simply quite likely that there aren't any intelligent extra terrestrials that are capable of making first contact with the Earth. However, with these UFO sightings published by the Navy, it's quite hard to dismiss the possibility that ET UFOs are real and that they have been visiting us all along.
Unlike Alexander Wendt (the famed political scientist interviewed in the article), I am dubious about our ability to predict what kind of benefits or risks would arise in the event that we encounter intelligent extra terrestrials far beyond our own technological level.
Wendt and many others also think that the ET civilization would be socially unified in their policy on how to deal with us and other primitive life forms (from their perspective). But I maintain that this is not at all the default assumption we should make. They may have different factions with differing views, just like us.
Some of the factions might be benevolent, whilst others not so much.
I do however agree, that UFO taboo is real, and the fact that anthropocentric society is how we have evolved, the very notion of discussion UFOs in the context of human society challenges that idea and is why no real effort has been made to learn more about these UFOs.
Like Wendt, I think academia is about finding out truths, and the fact that we as a species have dedicated so much resources to finding extra terrestrial life outside of our planet whilst completely ignoring the UFOs which are right at our doorstep for decades is disturbing.