Shortly after "flying saucers" appeared in movies the air force (or whatever office was responsible back then) was granted funds to build them. They built prototypes, but they failed aerodynamically (like the nazi round planes did as well). It's in some declassified US government data.
Area 51 isn't just a conspiracy theory, it's where they tested aircraft. When some strange flying objects were seen by the public nearby, they made it sound as crazy as possible to confuse the Soviets.
Oh, dude. Look up the montauk project and then a show called "Time Tunnel." Actually, look them up in the other order because you might find montauk to be a bit of a rabbit hole. I'm surprised I'm like pretty much like the only person to notice this and point it out.
True. But IMO sci-fi is one of the genres which influence how people think of the future at most.
Sorry, I don't have a link. I was too lazy to actually implement the idea of a webapp which stores the sources to my opinions. But as an example, there where UFO invader movies in the 50s and a few years later they tested(and failed) them on Area 51.