Mysterious ‘flying saucer’ slides found in documents leaked by Edward Snowden
uk.news.yahoo.com
uk.news.yahoo.com
This long term trend of UFO mockery is a very intelligent way to keep interest and investigation at bay. Take for example the Phoenix Lights incident where the Arizona Gov. got an aide to dress up as an alien as a good and far less subtle example:
http://www.ufosnw.com/news_items/govsymington03182007/govsym...
As many disasters around the world have proven, when crazy things are actually happening people can get really good video with a simple mobile phone. It doesn't take any particular talent.
"I saw something in the sky that I didn't understand" is a perfectly reasonable thing to say, but it's not usually grounds for a major national discussion. "Space aliens are flying through our skies" is an extraordinary claim, and should only be taken seriously in the face of extraordinary evidence.
Instead, all we've got is a rather small collection of blurry photos and videos that hasn't grown at all proportionately to the ready availability of cameras (as one would expect if these were true but rare events), and a handful of personal anecdotes that could be imagined (intentionally or not) or related to physiological experiences like sleep paralysis. At some point, the lack of evidence really ought to make folks question whether it's worth continuing to ask these same questions. When they keep at it anyway, it's hard to take them seriously.
Regarding some of the other comments here, my sense is that there are some beliefs where mockery really is the best response. (Hopefully not mean-spirited mockery, mind you.) If you engage with flat-earthers on a serious level, you inevitably wind up lending them at least a bit of an air of legitimacy (in the eyes of outsiders who may not yet be familiar with the topic in detail). If you ignore them, they can monopolize the public discussion and claim that you're afraid to face their ideas. Laughing at their ideas can be more effective in both ways, at least if handled well.
"We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity… ...anything you can imagine we already know how to do."
"We have things at Area 51 that you and the best minds in the world won't even be able to conceive that we have for 30 or 40 years, and won't be made public for another 50."
--Ben Rich, former head of Lockheed Martin Skunkworks
"We have things in the Nevada desert that are alien to your way of thinking far beyond anything you see on Star Trek."
Of course, like Ben Rich's "quotes" it was given only to me, mere days before he died, and never repeated to anyone else, and I never brought it up to another living soul for years... I was waiting for a bad history channel show to reveal it, but I guess this will do.