The motivations of anti-Masons

Someone on the subreddit for Freemasonry recently pointed to a Spotify podcast and suggested we all listen to it for a good laugh. I won't link to it and I didn't laugh. It was a fairly typical conspiracy theory of the type you'll see quite often, and which I address more fully in my Everything wrong with... Freemasonry posting from way back in 2014. But I want to talk about what motivates such efforts because it's not always immediately obvious. There are four sorts of anti-Masonic material out there (at least of the sort that get it all very wrong... someone who just thinks that what we do isn't okay... what's an honest difference of opinion and I take no exception to it).

1. Ignorance
2. Financial gain
3. Saber-rattling
4. Mental illness

Ignorance

Many anti-Masons find online materials like freemasonrywatch or various YouTube videos, presume that they are honest accounts and proceed to announce these "facts" to others. Often this is a self-feeding cycle, with videos based on videos based on podcasts based on blogs and so on...

I take no exception to the motivation, here, but I really do wish that when people read an extraordinary claim they would apply more skepticism and seek extraordinary justification before telling others about it.

I include in this category the sort of anti-Masonry that is meant to be humorous, but is executed in an ignorant way. I'm all for lampooning anti-Masonry (and Masonry for that matter) but when you simply pass on ignorance for the lulz, that's no better than the person introducing said ignorance in the first place.

Financial gain

This is probably the most common motivation of the prolific anti-Masons. YouTube and Patreon revenue are often enough to get people to keep coming back to anti-Masonry. It's exciting stuff and it brings in viewers. There's nothing that we can really do about this sort of anti-Masonry until the public becomes more selective about what it will entertain from content producers. But it is critical that we recognize it when we see it. These are not people who are simply mistaken about Freemasonry. They understand just fine, but they choose to spread falsehoods in order to sell books or get views.

Saber-rattling

This is very much like the above, but the motivation is the energizing of a base rather than direct financial gain. For example, a Catholic anti-Mason may seek to sway other Catholics to their sect or cause within the Church by attacking Freemasonry and suggesting that it's influencing "those other Catholics". This is not unique to Catholicism by any means. I've seen it from other religious groups, political groups and even some cultural/ethnic outlets. It boils down to promoting xenophobia for political gain, and as such I find it reprehensible and one of the darker things that humans regularly get up to.

Mental illness

I do not claim or suggest that someone who doesn't like Freemasonry is mentally ill. Disliking the thing I happen to like isn't a reason that I should suspect that you have a problem with reality, but there are absolutely many mentally ill people out there who gravitate toward Masonic and generally "secret society" oriented conspiracy theory because of their illness. It is critical that we Masons and the public in general not simply point and laugh at these behaviors. Mental illness is no laughing matter and if you cannot help such people in a constructive way, it is best to simply ignore them.

Examples of this sort include variations on the "mind control lasers" techno-paranoia for example.

Accidental anti-Masonry

Finally, there's a fifth type that isn't really anti-Masonry so I didn't include it... it sort of fits into the first category, but sort of doesn't. This is the bleed-over from various other conspiracy theory, some valid an some not. For example, there are many people who are concerned about abuse of power by police in many parts of the world and that conversation often ends up dropping in some anti-Masonry though it's completely unrelated for one of the reasons listed above, and then that connection ends up getting repeated until, almost without anyone having decided to do so, it becomes a central feature of many people's statements about the problem. This happens to lots of groups, not just Masons, and it's really just part of the game of telephone that we call modern society.

Conclusions

So, what can you do? For starters, be a better consumer of media. Don't pass things on because they're amusing if they hurt others or distribute falsehoods. Check sources and verify strange claims. I If someone says something that you find surprising check the details.

For example, if someone tells you that a woman sued McDonald's for serving her coffee that was too hot, look into the details... you might find that the facts of that case aren't at all what you thought they were, and maybe when you re-share that story, you'll give it some context...