Tesla’s Cybertruck is now out in the real world, with a small number of purchasers taking possession last month. Just as it was at its unveiling back in 2019, the released Cybertruck is hideous. It is lamentable and it should not exist. Alas, exist it does. Over at Road & Track, Victoria Scott has reviewed the Cybertruck as a cultural critic, and done a fine job.

So automakers have given us what we demanded, and the stylistic language has changed to match: the overarching trends of this decade thus far is to make our vehicles broader, heavier, boxier, and more militaristic in nature, as rounded lines don’t project power. The Cybertruck—which Musk stated at its launch “will win” in an “argument” with other vehicles—simply follows all of these themes to their logical endpoints.

A bulletproof three-and-a-half ton stainless-steel truck equipped with “Bioweapon Defense Mode” designed to slam through other cars is the perfect vehicle for a society where over a third of people are scared to walk around at night.

The increasing hugeness of modern American vehicles is both dreadful and deadly. The Cybertruck is the purest incarnation of this awful trend we’ve yet seen.