The global community of university presses watched in horror as events unfolded yesterday in the US Capitol. There can be no question that the lawlessness we witnessed was the direct and foreseeable consequence of years of intentional prevarication, part of a sustained pattern of deliberate misinformation that has gone unchecked for far longer than anyone in positions of power should have tolerated. The Association of University Presses calls on government and civic leaders at long last to acknowledge that facts matter, that words have power, and that demagoguery from any source when left unchallenged is harmful to the fabric of democratic institutions and societies. We commit with renewed vigor to publishing the truth, however uncomfortable, to speaking facts to power, and to advancing knowledges that can help all of us to bring about justice and equity in this world.