Justin Shubow Reveals the Hidden Agenda Behind America’s Dystopian Buildings

America’s civic architecture tells a story—one of beauty, dignity, and democracy, or one of cold, oppressive control. In this eye-opening discussion, Elizabeth Farah and Justin Shubow expose how Brutalist architecture—those soulless, concrete monstrosities—was never about practicality or cost, but about ideology. The architectural elite have imposed ugliness by design, stripping our nation’s buildings of inspiration and nobility, while silencing the public’s voice in the process. But it doesn’t have to be this way. President Trump’s executive order to restore classical architecture was a bold step toward reclaiming America’s visual identity—one that the establishment quickly overturned. Now, with a new political era on the horizon, the battle for America’s beauty is back. If we want a future where our buildings uplift rather than subjugate, we must fight to enshrine beauty, tradition, and the people’s will into law.