I think Americans were so deeply propagandized about the USSR that they believed any real suffering the people endured under capitalism was a balloon party compared to what life was like under communism in their imaginations. Absolutely insane shit like “if they find you own a Bible you are immediately executed”.

And for the more economically “sophisticated”, I remember hearing a lot of “well the Soviet economy was so inefficient that some pain must come along with restructuring, but they will be better off in the end”.