Let me give you a concrete perspective on living in post-communist Bulgaria, which is a rather cynical, nihilistic and fatalistic society, at least by Western standards. There is no meaningful political debate about future policies, what we have instead is name-calling between politicians using a pre-defined set of labels ("anti-communist", "communoid", "Soros-funded foreign agent with a neoliberal agenda", "rusophobe", "rusophile"). It's an inherently fruitless construct which fortifies itself as time passes. The wider population believes in "conventional wisdom" and also recognises these labels. For the anti-communist camp, all of the evil in this country was conceived by a few state security officers during the early 1990s, who were directing a puppet show in front of the population. For the pejoratively called "communoid" camp, all of the evil was caused by the new "democrats" who sold profitable state enterprises for pennies to questionable individuals.
It's a self-inflicted reality which persists much longer than is needed. The state security officers are now mostly dead or in their late 70s, those state enterprises are bankrupt from long ago, yet somehow it is still a relevant identification issue when it comes to your political beliefs.