This was written and edited by folks who lived in the USSR, so we know that these people held complexity. More than "just..."

Just is a great word. It alerts the author and reader that there's little substance in the claim. Just trust me!

People were shaped by the rules they lived under. That doesn't make the rules any less insane.

Yes. What I was trying to say that people who live within those rules (and keep propagating/making them!) can't just live in the constant congitive dissonance state. They rationalize this state of the world, they tell stories (to themselves and to each other) to make sense of these rules, so it doesn't feel insane.

They absolutely can live in the constant congitive dissonance state. I did 30 years of my life. Many of us did. I know it's hard to believe for people living all their life in the free world, but constant congitive dissonance was just part of the reality for us.

Well, the very real absurdities and nightmare of your "way of life", you don't see them as well. What happens now in Gaza? Do you "see" it?

Many were aware of the absurdities. The issue is that when one is inundated with absurdities around them, identifying what is true is impossible.