> This is a telltale symptom of quacks and cranks. "My truth is being suppressed". The more normal explanation of superiors telling someone to shut up is either because it's top secret information about military tech or plain old bullshit. Only quacks come to the conclusion that "they want to shut me up". In fact, it's one of the items in the crackpot index.
Yes. This is a textbook example of the Conspiracy Fallacy. The problem is that the Conspiracy Fallacy doesn't actually disprove a conspiracy- it only says that you can't use a lack of evidence ("the clintons are hiding the bodies, of course, because they're guilty!") AS evidence. And when it comes to reporting UFO's, talk to anyone in the past 70 years who's reported them and ask them how it affected their reputation; this is a real risk to anyone who may be reporting a real thing.
> UFOlogy is the realm of woo
So is science, sometimes. Turns out that humans are flawed and bring judgment into everything, such as anyone who initially called out The Ether, Miasma theory or, eh, pretty much all of psychology into question.
> Who wants to be associated with some weirdo claiming he was sexually abused by space aliens?
No one. Which is why only the weirdos who don't have much to lose, report that. Survivorship fallacy... You don't know any of the reports non-weirdos would make if they could do it without harming their own reputations (disclaimer: I know of at least one, a CEO of a 100+ person firm, who only told me his story if I did not retell it... it's amazing what people will tell you when they feel you will not judge or shame them!). Which is why it's dangerous to bring shame and judgment into any such claim.
> instead of shaky footage and unreliable witnesses
The footage seems to be getting better and there's such a long list of reliable witnesses at this point that to claim otherwise is extremely willfully ignorant.