Happy New Year. We have a problem. It’s a false positive problem. Tens of millions of Americans are positive about falsehoods. At the top of the list is the aptly named Big Lie and its connections to the January 6th insurrection. You can look at the specifics. “Four in 10 Republicans have a different conception of who was involved in the first place, saying most of those who forced their way into the Capitol were left-leaning groups pretending to be Trump supporters.” You can take the broader view: 52% of Republicans say those involved in the riot were “protecting democracy.” Or you can pull back for a more general perspective: About a third of Americans think violence against the government can be justified. “A majority continue to say that violence against the government is never justified — but the 62 percent who hold that view is a new low point, and a stark difference from the 1990s, when as many as 90 percent said violence was never justified.” (At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if 46% of Americans believe it’s still 2021.)

+ “Our political life seems more or less normal these days, as the president pardons turkeys and Congress quarrels over spending bills. But peel back a layer, and things are far from normal.” NYT Editorial Board: Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now. (Let’s get that urgency out of the op-ed section and onto the front page where it belongs.)

+ “This is not the kind of thing I expected to ever worry about in the United States … I kind of feel like a climate scientist from five years ago or [an] expert on viruses a couple of years ago, sounding the alarm and just hoping that we’re not too late already.” NPR: The clear and present danger of Trump’s enduring Big Lie.

+ Margaret Sullivan in WaPo: If American democracy is going to survive, the media must make this crucial shift. The “pro-democracy coverage is not being ‘centered’ by the media writ large. It’s occasional, not regular; it doesn’t appear to be part of an overall editorial plan that fully recognizes just how much trouble we’re in. That must change.”

+ A reminder. Things can change in a hurry. “Lawmakers in Hong Kong’s new ‘patriots only’ legislature swore oaths of allegiance on Monday as it sat for the first time following a new selection process that barred the city’s traditional democracy opposition.”

+ Unless those who attempted to overthrow a US election are punished and unless those supporting The Big Lie are held to account, the bad actors are just gonna keep laughing their asses off. Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is promoting an election fraud board game.