Fair enough. My wife is the serious conspiracy theorist & researcher, I merely dabble. I really wish I had access to something meaty to divulge, and have no way of convincing you or anyone I’m not part of a disinfo campaign. I’m doing this for purely selfish reasons, to give a little middle-finger to the organization that sucked a decent portion of my energy over the last few decades.
I’m not sure what I expected to be honest. I needed positive guy friends and I got that. But I mostly wanted to help out the Brothers and the community and be part of something important. Instead we spend $50,000/year on building upkeep and give a $500 annual scholarship to a relative of one of the members.
I only know a few off the top of my head, but the ones I’ve known are kinda stand-off-ish and arrogant. More importantly, from day one were told “Every 3rd degree Master Mason is equal and on the level with every other 3rd degree.” Then you find out there’s a high level, invitation-only group.
Nothing I ever read (although there was one book I read the name escapes me, but it talked about how Masonry fills the lack of rites-of-passage for men). Any positive growth I experienced was mostly self confidence of running the lumbering beast of a lodge for a year. I probably could’ve had the same effect by running my own business.