and the really creepy thing is that if you look into the history of it (which at this point requires going to that weird place we call a library because nobody's bothered to get the information online), the conspiracy becomes exposed as the conspiracy theory itself. the actual truth of this is the most mind-boggling thing about it. it's beyond meta. it's meta-meta.
the illuminati were actually a group of real people. they existed in the middle of the 1700s. what were they, though? they were a sort of a cross between a political activist group and a reading club. these types of organizations don't really exist anymore, but they've had a dramatic effect on world history when they have. i mean, there wouldn't have been revolutions in france or america without these "secret societies". and one might argue that we probably won't get another real revolution until we go back to that sort of thinking. they may have had overlapping membership with freemasons in the period, but masonry was relatively popular at the time amongst "free thinkers" so there's not a lot to draw out of that.
so, what were the political aims of the illuminati? well, they lived in europe in the 1700s, which remained an aristocratic society that upheld the divine right of monarchs to rule by the blessing of the pope. the pope was a sort of european emperor (in some ways a direct political descendant of the roman emperor). underneath him, you had the various monarchs in control of areas of land (which we today call countries), who parcelled the land out further and etc. it's the political order we call feudalism.
the illuminati were a group opposed to feudalism and in favour of what they then called liberalism - which meant free markets, human rights and common ownership of resources. it's a little bit contradictory in terms of the existing spectrum, but it represented the revolutionary thought of the period. they correctly identified the political power of the catholic church as the single most important thing to overturn in order to carry out the revolutions we refer to today as the french and american ones.
naturally, the catholic church was opposed to abolishing itself....
....so it told everybody that the illuminati (and the masons and the other revolutionay groups) were SATANISTS. you want to be a revolutionary? dude, you're going to hell...
this propaganda offensive by the church (and aligned aristocratic groups) was extremely successful during the period that the actual illuminati existed. the authorities raided the society, smashed it up and sent all the people there to jail and/or monasteries. adam weishaupt actually spent most of his life in a seminary, "recanting his sins".
in fact, the propaganda was so successful that we're still talking about it today. it was imported to the united states in the nineteenth century by right-wing religious puritans to use in much the same way that the catholic church initially used it and has ballooned into everything from mccarthyist birch society type stuff (satanic illuminati communists are pushing the nwo) to the standard hip-hop conspiracy theory. i remember hearing the old bogeyman come up near the tail end of the occupy moment, as well.
the common theme that runs through all of it is that the illuminati has always represented the groups that are in opposition to the actual capitalist power elite, which is trying to scare you away from them by demonizing them as satanic.
triple meta scary point? this is how religions start....
the flip side of this is that, because the capitalist revolutions were largely based in secret societies, the secret "working group model" has continued. there's a reason that conspiracy is in the criminal code - and has been enforced at the political level. there's plenty of historical examples of exclusive groups working together to carry out social or financial goals. a proper understanding of the history of the capitalist era can't ignore the works of carroll quigley or antony sutton.
the error in the conspiracy theory approach to understanding the world consequently isn't in the idea that the elite meet in groups to carry out their plans - this is well established, if weakly documented. rather, it's in the following two major points.
1) the idea that they're evil. this needs to be replaced with a proper class analysis. skull and bones does exist. yale will confirm this. but, it's a way for upper class kids to make contacts that will help them carry out their goals in life, not a satanic cult.
2) that they're centralized. this is the key error. in fact, these groups are often in conflict with each other. this is abstract and over-simplified at the same time, but the democrats and republicans largely fall in line with the major split in these groups, which is over the role of the british empire in the world. you can see it come out in the propaganda if you know what you're looking for. republicans tend to push for an atomized world driven by american dominance, whereas democrats seek to work through bodies like the united nations to establish a global order based on international law.
so, yes: secret societies exist. in many ways, they form the basis of the existing ruling class. but, they're fighting with each other for control rather than organized in a centralized command structure.
and they don't eat babies.