I've made this point before and I'll make it again because it bears repeating: one of the main reasons why the public distrusts scientists today, is the outrageous level of ridicule and scorn that the scientific community has heaped upon UFO witnesses and the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The magnitude of that betrayal in the public mind is vastly underestimated.
When your beloved grandmother, or your closest friend, looks you in the eye and tells you about their sighting - that, you trust. And your own eyes, for those who have seen these things for themselves. The public has known that these things are real, and probably extraterrestrial, for over half a century. But the mainstream science community and the corporate news media - spurred on by government disinformation operatives and the military intelligence agencies - laughed in their faces about it. So an enormous rift erupted between the public and academic scientists. And over time, it's only widened.
Now people distrust damn near everything that the scientific community has to say, including anthropogenic global warming, and even the Moon landings in some cases. Payback's a bitch. And thanks to sociopathic low-lifes like Philip Klass who dedicated their entire lives to mocking innocent witnesses, the world is on the brink of a catastrophic calamity and we're powerless to stop it because nobody trusts scientists anymore.
Which is why you should never conduct PsyOps against your own citizens: because when you need people to take you seriously in the face of a major imminent crisis, they won't believe you.