Propaganda is propaganda regardless of whether it's good, bad or understandable

False dichotomy

The mental cancer predates capitalism, and has also brutally manifested itself in parallel in socialist nations.

Stalin, Mao, the Gang Of Four, Honecker, Hoxha, Kim Il-Sung, Ceauçescu, Pol Pot... the list is dismayingly long; so many tyrants as fucked up as anything one could come up with in capitalist nations, and even more. They tapped into the bloodlust of the oppressed, to build a new apparatus of oppression, their generals covered in a hundred solemn yet worthless medals, those bastards sure loved the status and pomp, displays and parades.

These nations build walls not so much to keep a potential enemy out, but to keep their own people in. That should tell you enough you need to know about how life was in those places.