MYSTERY WIRE — Once again, the New York Times is venturing into the world of serious talk about UFOs and aliens.

The Times began seriously covering UFOs back in 2017 when Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean wrote about $22 million the government spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).

Today, journalist and columnist Ezra Klein has published an opinion piece with the headline, “Even if You Think Discussing Aliens Is Ridiculous, Just Hear Me Out“

In the column, Klein lays out the coverage the Times has previously had on the topic in 2017, 2019, and twice in 2020.

Klein clearly distinguishes differences between the serious research done by the government, military, and private citizens on the topic while addressing the fact the narrative over the years that it is taboo to talk about UFOs has held back serious research.

“I really don’t know what’s behind these videos and reports, and I relish that. In this case, that is my bias: I enjoy the spaciousness of mystery. Evidence that there is intelligent extraterrestrial life, and it has been here, would upend how humanity understands itself and our place in the cosmos. Even if you think all discussion of aliens is ridiculous, it’s fun to let the mind roam over the implications.”

Ezra Klein, New York Times

He even speculates that if an alien craft crashed on Earth tomorrow, leaving no room to deny its existence, the current public trust in government would collapse.

“One immediate effect, I suspect, would be a collapse in public trust. Decades of U.F.O. reports and conspiracies would take on a different cast. Governments would be seen as having withheld a profound truth from the public, whether or not they actually did. We already live in an age of conspiracy theories. Now the guardrails would truly shatter, because if U.F.O.s were real, despite decades of dismissals, who would remain trusted to say anything else was false? Certainly not the academics who’d laughed them off as nonsense, or the governments who would now be seen as liars.”

Ezra Klein, New York Times

You can read the entire editorial now on the New York Times website.