So....it's impossible to win against these fruit loops. How do you prove something that doesn't exist doesn't exist? You can even argue from a point of authority, they simply respond that you are not high enough in the system to know.
David Icke is probably the worst of them, writing books claiming that the planet is being ruled by reptilian extraterrestrials from the planet Draco and that there is a secret organization called the "brotherhood", a mix of Freemasons, Egyptians and Nazis of all people. I've heard he's great at parties.
But he's not alone. There's a famous video of some yahoo giving a presentation about how he's a former 90th degree freemason and part of the inner circle and that inner group is composed of lizard people as some sort of shadow government.
These fringe people all claim to know the truth, and any arguments against them are dismissed as ignorance. You can't win an argument regardless of who you are or how high up in the food chain you sit.
The terrible part in all of this is that there is a segment of our society that will believe this, and real harm can come of it. The worst are the ones that consider everyone ignorant, and that the believers are the truly enlightened ones. And at the extreme end, we have idiots like the one discussed in the link above, who blew themselves up over it.
Much like the Turner Diaries, real violence can and has stemmed from such publications and that is why it is so dangerous for us as members of the craft.
My own brother was one of the Alex Jones acolytes, and had a hard time juxtaposing my involvement and the arguments he's hear online from fellow travelers within those circles. The real issue is that these conspiracies pray on the natural distrust of government, and give explanation to all sorts of events, from the holocaust to covid. It's the latter that eventually killed my brother, who firmly believed that the covid virus was a hoax and in the end when he himself caught it, he refused to go to the hospital and ended up dead laying on his bathroom floor.
I blame that ilk on my brother's death. They killed him without even knowing who he was. He died for nothing. But we are powerless to stop it, as our constitutional rights provide them with the privilege of free speech.
I love folklore, and I see conspiracy theories being a form of folklore. If you think of folklore as the dreams a culture has, conspiracy theories are the nightmares. Nightmares in humans are an expression of fears and stresses that the conscious mind can't resolve, or at least has not resolved. That is what a conspiracy theory is, except on the societal level., in my opinion. People sense danger in our society, they feel a loss of control and the unfairness of daily life, and in their mind someone must be behind it. Alternatively, we are creatures designed to process stress, and in some people I think the lack of authentic stress may result in made up fears.
As a fraternity that is 400 years old, or older, that has been accused of conspiracies for most of that time, it's not surprising that we continue to experience accusations based in these theories. To make matters worse some of our brethren go on TV, or podcasts, and suggest that we ARE in fact part of a larger secret force effecting the world. This of course feeds the conspiracy theories.
What is the fix? First make ourselves safe. Secure our lodges and meetings. Two, guard the west gate. Be careful who we initiate. Three recognize that we have Tylers for a reason, and we should use it. Keep the Masonic theories that are controversial to the general public in Lodge. Many Masons have written books for the general public, and spoken publicly, that really help fuel these theories. I think we need to ask ourselves if writing such a book, which will no doubt boost our egos, is a good idea for the fraternity. Promote our mundane and charitable works.
I doubt any of us will live long enough to see these controversies die out. But we can stop feeding them, and change the narrative somewhat.
Being from a Masonic family, I think it’s the “secrecy” and temples which many non Masonic find unsettling. That’s been my experience. Thank you for shedding light on this important topic Cameron! 🤗
So....it's impossible to win against these fruit loops. How do you prove something that doesn't exist doesn't exist? You can even argue from a point of authority, they simply respond that you are not high enough in the system to know.
David Icke is probably the worst of them, writing books claiming that the planet is being ruled by reptilian extraterrestrials from the planet Draco and that there is a secret organization called the "brotherhood", a mix of Freemasons, Egyptians and Nazis of all people. I've heard he's great at parties.
https://lithub.com/on-the-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-that-led-to-the-2020-nashville-bombing/
But he's not alone. There's a famous video of some yahoo giving a presentation about how he's a former 90th degree freemason and part of the inner circle and that inner group is composed of lizard people as some sort of shadow government.
These fringe people all claim to know the truth, and any arguments against them are dismissed as ignorance. You can't win an argument regardless of who you are or how high up in the food chain you sit.
The terrible part in all of this is that there is a segment of our society that will believe this, and real harm can come of it. The worst are the ones that consider everyone ignorant, and that the believers are the truly enlightened ones. And at the extreme end, we have idiots like the one discussed in the link above, who blew themselves up over it.
Much like the Turner Diaries, real violence can and has stemmed from such publications and that is why it is so dangerous for us as members of the craft.
My own brother was one of the Alex Jones acolytes, and had a hard time juxtaposing my involvement and the arguments he's hear online from fellow travelers within those circles. The real issue is that these conspiracies pray on the natural distrust of government, and give explanation to all sorts of events, from the holocaust to covid. It's the latter that eventually killed my brother, who firmly believed that the covid virus was a hoax and in the end when he himself caught it, he refused to go to the hospital and ended up dead laying on his bathroom floor.
I blame that ilk on my brother's death. They killed him without even knowing who he was. He died for nothing. But we are powerless to stop it, as our constitutional rights provide them with the privilege of free speech.
I love folklore, and I see conspiracy theories being a form of folklore. If you think of folklore as the dreams a culture has, conspiracy theories are the nightmares. Nightmares in humans are an expression of fears and stresses that the conscious mind can't resolve, or at least has not resolved. That is what a conspiracy theory is, except on the societal level., in my opinion. People sense danger in our society, they feel a loss of control and the unfairness of daily life, and in their mind someone must be behind it. Alternatively, we are creatures designed to process stress, and in some people I think the lack of authentic stress may result in made up fears.
As a fraternity that is 400 years old, or older, that has been accused of conspiracies for most of that time, it's not surprising that we continue to experience accusations based in these theories. To make matters worse some of our brethren go on TV, or podcasts, and suggest that we ARE in fact part of a larger secret force effecting the world. This of course feeds the conspiracy theories.
What is the fix? First make ourselves safe. Secure our lodges and meetings. Two, guard the west gate. Be careful who we initiate. Three recognize that we have Tylers for a reason, and we should use it. Keep the Masonic theories that are controversial to the general public in Lodge. Many Masons have written books for the general public, and spoken publicly, that really help fuel these theories. I think we need to ask ourselves if writing such a book, which will no doubt boost our egos, is a good idea for the fraternity. Promote our mundane and charitable works.
I doubt any of us will live long enough to see these controversies die out. But we can stop feeding them, and change the narrative somewhat.
Being from a Masonic family, I think it’s the “secrecy” and temples which many non Masonic find unsettling. That’s been my experience. Thank you for shedding light on this important topic Cameron! 🤗