It sometimes feels like a psy-op to read through all these gushingly positive comments, when you know how the average person feels about it.

Yes, exactly!

A common theme among these weird ideological group-thinks is political undertones.

"Today, criticism on brutalism and modernism is mostly voiced by those on the far-right side of the political spectrum, precisely because of the association between modernism and the post-war welfare state"

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/10/21/brutalist-buildings-right-...

Yup - if you don't like Soviet-style dense urban monoliths, you're "far right" apparently.