A coffee shop. Walt, a professionally dressed man in his thirties sits at a table, drinking coffee and reviewing something on his laptop. SAMANTHA, also in her thirties and professionally dressed, enters with a coffee and her laptop and takes a seat at an adjoining table. WALT glances over at her, then resumes his work. He looks back at her as she opens up her laptop and appears to recognize her.

WALT: You’re Samantha, aren’t you?

SAMANTHA: What?

WALT: You’re Samantha.

SAMANTHA: Well, yeah, I–

WALT: You don’t remember me, do you?

SAMANTHA: No, I’m afraid I–

WALT: I’m a friend of Karen Lyndhurst.

SAMANTHA: Oh, yeah, Karen…I’m sorry, have we met?

WALT: Kind of…well, we had that political argument about abortion on Facebook.

SAMANTHA: Did we?

WALT: Yeah, you called me a “troglodyte, fundamentalist fascist.”

SAMANTHA: Did I? Well, I’m sure I was–

WALT: But you know what? Your scathing insult really opened my mind and made me rethink my whole position. I read a bunch of lengthy, well-researched articles on abortion, and now I’m one-hundred percent pro-choice.

SAMANTHA: You’re…you’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?

WALT: No, absolutely not. I mean, we conservatives are all about personal liberty and yet we want to use the power of the federal government to intervene in the most personal of all choices. (offers his hand) Thank you for elucidating this complex issue for me.

SAMANTHA (shaking his hand) Wow…I never converted anybody on Facebook before.

WALT: You were absolutely brilliant, Samantha.

SAMANTHA: It’s funny, I don’t even remember the argument.

WALT: Well, it started about gun control and then we veered into abortion.

SAMANTHA: Oh, you’re the guy!

WALT: You remember now?

SAMANTHA: Yeah, you called me a “dirty, gun-grabbing femi-Nazi.”

WALT: Did I?

SAMANTHA: But you know what? Your disparaging rant prompted me to explore a whole new approach to gun control. I did some research of my own, and I got to thinking. You know, we liberals distrust the government about everything and yet we are willing to grant it a monopoly on armed coercion. Well, not me anymore. My friends call me “Number 2” now because of my passionate support for the Second Amendment, and it’s all thanks to you…uh, what’s your name?

WALT: Walt, Walt DeBarres.

SAMANTHA: Samantha O’Claire.

WALT: Listen, Samantha, did I make any other arguments that seemed unfounded to you? Did I make any claims unsupported by pertinent data?

SAMANTHA: Well, now that you mention it, your opinion on raising the minimum wage was based on a faulty grasp of various indices of economic data. You know, I have a handy spreadsheet on my laptop that aggregates all the relevant information in a way that I think will illuminate the issue for you if you’re interested?

WALT: Absolutely.

SAMANTHA: But before I share that with you, did I make any other specious assertions in our Facebook argument?

WALT: Well, let’s see…You know, your view on rent control failed to take into account the depreciating property values rent control laws often cause as well as the general decline in available rentals for low income people such laws often bring about.

SAMANTHA: Do you have any credible statistics that might help me to gain a more nuanced comprehension of your perspective on rent control, Walt?

WALT: As a matter of fact I was just reviewing a detailed statistical analysis of the impact of rent control laws on rental markets in more than a dozen big cities by a group of respected economists from several major universities.

SAMANTHA: Wow, let’s dive into the numbers then!

WALT: Just a second. Not before you shed light on my faulty grasp of the data on raising the minimum wage. I can’t wait to have my preconceptions challenged.

SAMANTHA: Okay, but don’t think you’ll get out of debunking my superficial views on rent control with your statistical analysis.

WALT: (rising) You might poke holes in my analysis.

SAMANTHA: Oh, I doubt that.

WALT joins SAMANTHA at her table. They immediately begin focusing intently on SAMANTHA’S laptop screen.

BLACKOUT