Q: Is this a joke?
A: The site is parody. The institutional critique is sincere.
The site is parody. This is a work of satire in the tradition of The Onion, The Borowitz Report, and Church of the SubGenius. Joseph Smith did not have nuclear weapons. No actual “Hermanity Press Committee” exists. The documents described on this site — the Palisade photographs, the Carthage deposition, the 1986 BYU thesis — are fictional, fabricated for the purpose of producing a stylistically convincing piece of conspiracy satire.
The fictional evidence on this site is presented in a deadpan, citation-heavy register that is, deliberately, indistinguishable from the register of real fringe-research websites. The committee (which does not exist) considers this register the appropriate register in which to lampoon the form, not the content, of long-running institutional coverups.
What the site is not parodying:
- The members of any religion, who are referred to with respect throughout.
- The historical victims of any documented atrocity, who are referred to with care.
- The legitimate work of credentialed archivists, historians, and forensic scientists, who are cited in their proper professional capacity even in fictional settings.
If you read the Files and were, for any length of time, uncertain whether they were real — the committee considers that the highest compliment we could receive.