MODERATOR:

MODERATOR.

DEXTER FREEDMAN.

SYLVESTER FOX.

CATHY.

[SYLVESTER FOX types gently, but with focus, in HIS OFFICE. Enter suddenly DEXTER FREEDMAN, exasperated.]

DEXTER: You fucking shadow-blocked me?

FOX: Who let you in?

DEXTER: I couldn’t fucking believe it. [He sits across from Fox.] I still can’t.

FOX: Okay, you know what? Look: [He rotates his laptop. He presents a list displayed therein.]

DEXTER: So what?

FOX: That’s a DOZEN PEOPLE who complained about you, JUST this month.

DEXTER: So what? What did you do to hold THEM accountable? I still see THEIR stupid posts.

FOX: I saw a pattern.

DEXTER: Yeah, I’ll bet you did.

FOX: You were the only common denominator.

DEXTER: Is that so? I see: twelve people are too many to investigate. You have to pile it all on me, upon the SCAPEGOAT.

FOX: [He returns to his work.] If that’s how you wish to see it.

DEXTER: No, that’s how I DO see it. I don’t let what I WANT to see impinge upon my views.

FOX: It must be nice to be objective in these times.

DEXTER: And, hey: I get it. I’m the one who has to DEAL with ALL THESE PEOPLE, while THEY only have to deal with ME, and now I have to deal with YOU, though YOU DON’T have to deal with me.

[Sylvester Fox glances up, as if intending for this interruption to be settled swiftly.]

FOX: Except for when you barge into my Office, yeah.

[Freedman rises from his seated posture suddenly. Fox is taken aback.]

DEXTER: Right. ONLY then!! And tell me: did you even bother to READ any of these conversations?

FOX: I might have browsed them. [listlessly.]

DEXTER: Browsed. And what did you find?

FOX: A whole let of subversive stuff, to be honest.

DEXTER: Well, it would BEHOOVE you to know that about five of those twelve fatal comments were in FACT reproduced VERBATIM from other users on YOUR forum, and THREE of those FIVE were direct quotes FROM THREE OF THOSE TWELVE PEOPLE WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT ME.

FOX: Did you cite your sources?

DEXTER: Very funny. And once: yes.

FOX: What is your POINT, Dexter?

DEXTER: My POINT is this: who are YOU to block me?

FOX: You mean specifically? I am literally the moderator.

DEXTER: No, I’ll tell you what you are: you are a CENSOR. If you want to “Moderate”, why don’t you BE a moderate and counterbalance some of these barbarically one-sided DELUSIONS?

FOX: Were you APPOINTED to this lofty post?

DEXTER: Who says I HAD to be? When someone posts a point of view, that is free license to retort.

FOX: [With mounting concern, seething slightly.] I doubt that MOST people see it that way.

DEXTER: They OUGHT to. An opinion is dangerous; you speak it so that it won’t tear your Soul apart, for only by your speaking it can it be challenged, tried, reformed, and only then restored to social life.

FOX: And you’re the Judge, Jury, and Executioner who does this?

DEXTER: I am but a witness.

FOX: But you speak for all men?

DEXTER: I speak for but one group at a time. Now tell me: how was it that all these quotes I was ABLE to quote? How did I come to find them? Why was each of them so popular until the very moment *I* expressed it?

FOX: Maybe you should know your audience.

DEXTER: I DO. And that’s the very problem. All these bigots had been preaching to the choir. I was just compelling them to SEE THE OTHER SIDE.

FOX: Maybe the grass was greener on THEIR side. Who is to say they have to buy another lot?

DEXTER: Some lot. But I was handling my own with them. But then YOU came along.

FOX: Now let me be quite clear with you, Freedman: You have been ranting; now it’s MY turn. *I* don’t “come along”. YOU come along and use MY server. YOU upset MY clients.

DEXTER: [Uproariously, with glee.] You SEE? THAT’S all I NEEDED FOR YOU TO CONFESS.

FOX: [With indignant perplexion.] “Confess”?!?

DEXTER: [With persistent delight.] Yeah!! That’s what I was WAITING for. You finally ADMIT it. You perceive these people to be SUBJECTS IN YOUR COURT. And it BEHOOVES YOU to make sure that they are segregated into echo chambers.

FOX: If that’s what the People Want.

DEXTER: The “PEOPLE”? The PEOPLE cannot decide how many GENDERS there are, much less what should QUALIFY a “well-informed opinion”. I have but to suggest the Other Side EXISTS, as something CREDIBLE, and they must fall apart, complaining to their Lord and Master, that I might be excommunicated WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT.

FOX: IT’S WHAT THEY WANT, OKAY?! GOOD PEOPLE *NEED* GROUP THOUGHT. THEY CANNOT *HANDLE* YOUR PRETENSIONS TO SOME LOFTY, OMNIPRESENT OBJECTIVITY.

[Pause.]

DEXTER: Wow. [laughing slightly, but frowning.] Just wow.

FOX: [Trying to recover, sardonically but with exhaustion and surrender.] Oh, WHAT?

DEXTER: You just nailed it so perfectly; you summed it up ideally.

FOX: Summed WHAT up? Good God.

DEXTER: The problem. I know how you see me. You don’t have to strain yourself to make it clear, though you insist upon the effort.

FOX: You hardly make it easy.

DEXTER: Don’t I, though? But this is how you see me: I’m delusional and narcissistic. I attempt to unify the lot of them to overthrow you. I pretend to be the One to Lead Them All. The People don’t agree, but that is why they’re free. That is: until the business of their disagreements falls to ME.

FOX: Spoken like a true psychopath.

DEXTER: Yes, yes: that’s who I am, to you, and you make sure they see me just that way. What more is there to say? Okay.

FOX: I’m just trying to be OBJECTIVE, bro. I don’t take sides. I don’t demand that people get along. I just protect them from each other.

DEXTER: And from me.

FOX: YOU do not represent THEM. You don’t want to play along? That’s fine; don’t pick a side. Sit on the fence, or run about like you’re some double-agent, pointing out their inconsistencies. I do not OWE you any sort of audience, so if your posts don’t register, you have no one to blame. So long as they ALL want their echo chambers, you’re the Odd Man Out. Even if each echo chamber lives by contradicting other echo chambers, the Whole System Works, without the need for YOU to overthink it, criticize it, challenge it or hack it. It. Just. WORKS. Quite beautifully. The time when men sought Synthesis through Progress is long-gone. The Network is the Whole. And even if you see it, no one HAS to.

DEXTER: Christ. A machine could do what you do, even more efficiently, but who would build such a device?

[Enter Cathy.]

CATHY: [to Sylvester.] Should I call security?

BOTH: No. What’s the point?

CATHY: [to Freedman.] I think you should leave.

DEXTER: There’s no escape.

[Exit Freedman.]

[({Dm.A.A.)}]