Four days after protesters took over Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct and established an “autonomous zone” in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, I drove up to see for myself what was happening there …

After several hours inside the CHOP, my mind wanders briefly to the sign I saw while covering the protests in Portland on June 7, 2020: “Sex is great, but have you ever fucked the system?” It seemed to contain some poignant social commentary on the extent to which the popularity and potency of the protests has been amplified by the collective emotional trauma wrought by the pandemic. After months of mundanity and idleness, people are feeling good about having a purpose again, especially one whose stakes are so high. A fight for America’s soul is happening right now, and for a lot of folks, that’s better than sex.