One of my closest friends was a Mason. He joined them because they encouraged community involvement and individual spiritual/religious engagement. There's nothing nefarious about most of the people in the lower levels. It's the higher levels that are the problem.
the problem is the secret society, period. An organization that commoditizes secrecy may have plenty of well meaning lower degree members, but being a member of a secret society is still a problem. If information is actively discouraged from being freely exchanged, that means trust without verification is the ethos. Being a member of, contributing to, propagating, defending on anon boards... ALL a problem for the non-secret society.
One of my closest friends was a Mason. He joined them because they encouraged community involvement and individual spiritual/religious engagement. There's nothing nefarious about most of the people in the lower levels. It's the higher levels that are the problem.
the problem is the secret society, period. An organization that commoditizes secrecy may have plenty of well meaning lower degree members, but being a member of a secret society is still a problem. If information is actively discouraged from being freely exchanged, that means trust without verification is the ethos. Being a member of, contributing to, propagating, defending on anon boards... ALL a problem for the non-secret society.