In 1738 the Pope forbid all Catholics from joining a Masonic lodge (open to men of any religion, and secretive, no doubt to avoid Inquisition), and called them ‘depraved and perverted’ (unlike the Church, of course). No doubt the faithful kept the rumor-mills turning.
I can’t really provide much insight, but I was once contracted by a local Masonic lodge to install new windows. I had unsupervised access to pretty much any room that had a window in it, and I was even permitted to look around in the windowless chamber where they performed many of their rituals. They were actually pretty excited to show me around. I can’t imagine that they would allow a perfect stranger into their secret lair if they really had anything to hide. But, ya know, take what I say with a pinch of salt as it’s just one anecdote about one lodge in Nowhere, Ohio.
That’s their strategy, let some laymen in to look around, show them some fake ‘secret’ rims to show they aren’t really that special, while the clevery hidden real secret doors are quietly moved as you leave and enter each room. You end up being just one boring anecdote on the Internet, but over centuries it adds up to hundreds of ‘eh’ accounts to hide the real story… It’s brilliant!
It’s a somewhat secret organization even if they no longer take it too secretly, and it used to be made up of people who got things done. People who could take control of things if they acted in concert. It’s easy to imagine a secret organization within the secret organization that really dies trying to to manipulate the larger population
The Masons are secretive. Many very high level historic figures have been Masons. It’s a good old boys club to get in you need to be sponsored by another Mason. You don’t hear a lot about their accomplishments. And you would expect that a social group that contained many of the important men in history wouldn’t just be sitting around doing nothing in secret.
To my personal knowledge of them, just a bunch of businessmen who jerk each other off basically.
If one freemason owns a business, and another finds out they do and they also have a business - there will be some sort of service from one company or the other so they can make each other money. Basically, they just support members and will give them preferential treatment over someone they don’t know.
It’s kind of like church?
Because conspiracy theorists are idiots who can’t or won’t face the facts of reality.
Which facts. How does the world work, in your estimation.
Way I see it, you have two competing overarching theories, “spontaneous order” and “orchestrated order”. You look at the U.S./Western empire, with its totally hierarchical command structure, and a big “?” at the top above SCOTUS, Congress and the Presidency, who all inexplicably follow the same agendas opposed to the will and benefit of the people, it seems to me a perfectly reasonable conclusion that somebody is in control. I don’t think it’s the Freemasons - this was kind of an old trope throughout American history (see the early 1800s Anti-Masonic Party), but knocking out individual dumb theories for who’s in charge doesn’t disprove all of them.
IMO, “conspiracy theories” are a natural attempt to explain observed reality (inequality, mass conditioning/brainwashing, global militarism and empire, etc.). They can be informed by falsehoods and/or manipulated into harmful movements (MAGA for example), but again, doesn’t disprove the entire idea of society being controlled. The only way you get to such a disproof is by an exhaustive analysis of every social institution demonstrating it’s not being controlled. Going, “these things just happen on their own” without any further detail is hand-wavey.
Have you considered you can really accuse anyone you disagree with of “being idiots who can’t or won’t face the facts of reality”? Maybe reality is as hideous and our society as controlled as they say, and you’re the one can’t or won’t face the facts of it. That kind of discourse doesn’t get anyone anywhere.
You’re attacking a straw man. There are groups vying for control. The question is whether or not there is one group controlling everything, and I think that’s highly unlikely.
Way I see it, you have two competing overarching theories, “spontaneous order” and “orchestrated order”.
I see a lot of chaos, too. Conspiracy theorists will look at something that I regard as chaos (say, the Sandy Hook massacre) and say, “Oh, yeah, that was planned (by a conspiracy).” There seems to be an unwillingness to accept that there is a lot of chaos on the world, and while some things are controlled, much of it is not.
Because they control the British crown
and keep the metric system down.Read up on their founding and history, they brought it upon themselves. They wanted to be the mysterious Boogeyman from their inception because the founders thought it would be cool and fun.
Honestly, he’s not wrong, it does look cool and fun. I wish there were non-religious secret sects.
Isn’t that what the Order of Odd Fellows is?
I love secret societies because they always remind me of LARPers. I used to go to this comic shop that held a Vampire:The Masquerade LARP thing, and they would all act secretive and sneaky, and come in the backdoor and things.
How do you know there isn’t if they’re secret?
Be the chage you want to see ✨✨
(I’ll join your quirky mysterious lodge)
Honestly, same.
Secret Order of the Lemmings? Can we have a sh.it.head rite?
There’s always the Possum Lodge.
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
(When all else fails, play dead)
Because once upon a time, the lodges were where literal important historical figures worked out the details on their conspiracies.
A secret fraternal order with invite-only membership?… perfect scapegoat by the real perpetrators of evils.
It is not invite-only membership; that is disinformation. You can apply to join today if you choose.
It used to be. In fact ideally you were descended from a freemason and also vouched for.
Times change.
They used to wield real power or influence in protestant Midwestern and East coast areas in the 1800 to early 1900s.
