History

My dad was a mason and from close exposure to it it's basically just a drinking club that does community service type things occasionally. Maybe 250 years ago they were some elite powerful network but nowadays it's grill city.

He certainly wasn't rich either, I think the wealth demographics are dependent on the area

They're literally just frats but for middle-aged, usually settled men. Far less wild and rapey, more grill-and-charity-drive-y. They do rituals and rites because having secret dress up with your boys is fun as shit, it essentially serves the same social function as any in-joke.

Remember when you were a kid and had a tree house or fort or something like that? A big part of the appeal was that it was only you and you friends who were allowed in there whole other kids was not in on it. Freemasonry is sort of the same thing but for bougie men who also enjoy the possibility to get an evening away from their wives once in a while.

The costs of buying costumes and props are not insignificant and membership is invitation only do naturally it tends to be the local elite who are freemasons; lawyers, business owners, higher-level bureaucrats etc. They don't congregate to make big conspiracies, it's a goofy social club with some larping elements, but naturally they talk to eachother and befriend eachother. They collude but no more than they would have done anyways in the country club.

The secretive and quasi-religious nature of freemasonry has made it the target of lots of conspiracies over the years. However almost all of them have been completely baseless. An important exception to this is Liberia where the ruling elite did in fact use the freemasonry lodge to organise themselves and run the country.

On the one hand I want to say boy's club that the rich and powerful play around in but on the other I want to say it's more nefarious. Not sure.

Allows irrational collusion in capital markets because of a religious incentive. This type of collusion allows a small number of individuals to gain monopoly status in markets. While 'secret societies' are mostly harmless, there is a real threat when holders of capital are involved.

first bourgeoisie party?

The Freemasons weren't a big secret or anything, I have a bunch of their weird "code" books I bought at yard sales over the years. The Freemasons was just what the rich weird dudes in your town did to hang out with each other, like the elks lodge but 50-200 years ago. And while there's really no evidence to suggest they were ever a nationally or internationally powerful force, they could have a large role behind the scenes at the community level, because that was just where all the owners and bosses went to hang out on the weekend, so of course things like anti-union activities were coordinated at Masonic meetings. I think this is where a lot of their sinister reputation as string pullers in American lore comes from. The masons were where the mayor, your state legislators, and the factory owners networked and hung out

They were a bunch of :LIB:s