Last night I met a guy at Halloween party who told me he was a Free Mason. He was hilarious and fit right in with my friend group. Upon asking him what the Free Masons are he just said “basically we’re a bunch of dudes who get together for pancakes on Saturday.”
I’ve also heard conspiracies about the group in the past, and I even had an ex coworker once tell me the Free Masons were a cult and were out to get him.
Anyone have any insights? The internet is not very helpful.
In the UK at least, they were primarily made up from people like senior police, members of the judiciary, doctors, local businessmen, and the like. There has been various hoohahs in the past with judges being Masons and potential conflict of interests but because the order is so secretive, no-one can do shit. But it seems to be an Old Boys Network who look out for each other.
An interesting clue to look out for is when old buildings have black and white tiles at the entrance - no matter how large or small - either the building was used by the Masons as a meeting place or the owner was a member. So that's why some old banks have it, and pubs too because the owner was a Mason.