Post #508791

Esotericism in general is more or less a puzzle campaign to keep smart or aspirational (but otherwise average) people invested in religion. It's like the "new game plus" mode of theology. You cared enough about scripture to find the contradictions? Congratulations, you're not like those other church-goers! Put on this apron and join our secret club! So then the masonic mythos specifically ties "traditional" ideals of social and family structure (patriarchy, more or less) to progressive values like restraining power with law and a secular democracy, promoting individual liberty and diversity, etc. So it's got all of these juicy cultural hooks for people who would otherwise be white supremacists and it uses that structure to steer them towards a liberal, secular civil society and away from the doomsday cult (evangelicalism). Which is why it's so interesting to me that modern day US freemasons are frequently MAGA: somewhere along the way they lost the plot and now they're all on team Theocratic Dictatorship