Anatomy of a Taylor fight
Anyone wanna guess why was my back in pain for a day after I watched S5E5? Because I involuntarily tense my whole body whenever Taylor gets in her rage-mode. It's so tense and so frustrating and every argument is the same:
- Someone triggers her. She flies into a rage and latches onto a target. She accuses that target of some wildly hyperbolic bullshit ("you're all out to get me", "you think you're so perfect"). It sounds ridiculous, but she is fully convinced that's true, because it feels true to her, and she doesn't understand that the way things feel is not always how they actually are.
- The target gets defensive and tries to argue the accusations, usually pointing out obvious lies or contradictions. ("I don't think that's true", "when did that happen", "I literally never said that")
- The target is trying to make a rational argument to defend themselves, but Taylor isn't interested in engaging with their perspective, or even in engaging with the truth itself. She just wants to be mad and feel right. They don't live in a shared reality, because her feelings become her reality, and there's no arguing rationally with that.
- Taylor does her speak loud in snappy sentences voice, which is really effective at controlling the room and lets her constantly change the subject before you can pin down exactly why she's wrong.
- The target softens and hedges and validates her feelings ("no no no! I just think that sometimes..."), even when her feelings are bullshit. Taylor gets a dopamine hit of "I'm winning!", or at least, "they're scared of me!"
- Eventually the argument loses steam when they realizes they're talking to an incoherent ball of rage and there's no point. But Taylor doesn't want to lose her punching bag, who will she take her anger out on then? So she escalates by dredging up unrelated issues and slinging more accusations.
- Sometimes she drags in uninvolved parties and catches them off-guard asking them their opinion or repeats something the target said about them. They're on the spot so they hedge and validate too. Bonus if you can use this to turn the others against each other (Jessi/Demi, Jen/M+M).
- Finally, Taylor cries. And while I truly believe that these are genuine tears of pain, she sure doesn't mind that every fight she instigates ends with her being consoled by the person she verbally abused, even if they're crying too. She plays innocent little girl and half-heartedly apologizes; the target figures they should drop it since Taylor's going through a hard time. Later Taylor says she stands behind every shitty thing she said.
Rinse and repeat. The fight outside Mason's house, the housewarming party, the Shinia incident, most arguments with Dakota, even the freaking Instagram comment in S2. All conflicts that could have been resolved in five minutes btw.
Taylor really thinks she's the queen bee because the people around her try to earnestly engage with her while she yells abusive bullshit and rages beyond all reason. I really wish they would stop being such willing punching bags, maybe be a bitch right back, but also I get it. It's uncomfortable, and she's a friend (?), and it's a toxic cycle.