The real controversy comes from a justifiable socio-cultural fear of secret societies + historical instances of abuse such as some of the lodges involved in the terror of the French Revolution or more recently the anti-Comintern P2 lodge involved with the Banco Ambrosiano vatican scandal via Operation Gladio neofascist networks

The latter is something that could happen to any closed doors social group though, Freemasonry isn't particularly unique there. Could be Shriners or the Order of Jesters or even a well-connected Rotary Club chapter in your oblast. For certain there is potential for moral corrosion in any secret society and Freemasonry becomes suspect under this light in times where people are on guard for the threat of conspiracy (but not when they're called "lobbyists" or "think tanks", for some reason) , but there's nothing particularly foul about the rites of Freemasonry themselves. Many of the Founding Fathers practiced Masonry and ultimately used their bearings within their social circles as a force for good against oppression from the British crown so it can go either way

The truth about "evil conspiracies" in vivo is typically much more mundane and the biggest evils of such sorts facing us today are, as Hannah Arendt said, buried within the banal and mundane aspects of our orientations within the cogs and wheels of our society, and are typically wrapped up in less exotic and fantastical motivations and directions than the boogeyman of Freemasonry

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5532069&forum_id=2...id#47687816)