> I mean, how much does it take to know this fact?

I believe nothing can dispel the disbelief people outside of ex-Union feel about what you point to, other than living through that surreal time, but it was really like this.

Out of all Soviet defectors to the West, the biggest groups were: 1. diplomats, 2. spies, 3. military. All who were entitled to see that.

1976 soviet TV docco about New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2_olezbbA Didn't see any supermarkets, closest I found in a quick scrub was a shopping bag at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2_olezbbA&t=1100

San Francisco supermarket in Little Italy getting plenty of deliveries? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swdtgcaFess&t=1085

California (1974) orchards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytE_RDrsmMg&t=445 and of course, the Mouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytE_RDrsmMg&t=1127

Also no supermarkets along the 1976 Mississippi, but they did make it to the French Quarter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xo7rtSwwI&t=1615

Luxury shopping in Dallas (1978) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCQzMJd4kiM&t=1942

No supermarkets in Pittsburg (1975) but for some reason they went to the unemployment lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgfq1isLUUI&t=1200

Los Angeles, with more Disneyland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmZMJvFVKiA&t=2725 (and wide freeways with lots of cars)

1974 DC has plenty of monuments, white house, pentagon, protestors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvy2fYVs5iw (but the cars have changed in the intervening half century)

It is not the same to know something from a book or tv and experiencing it in first person. * Just ask any person from east Germany who went to the west after the wall came down. Even though they knew it all from tv etc, actually being there and seeing it themselves made a huge impression on everybody. After that the communist elites in the east were immediately powerless.

* I was one of those persons and I can assure you that it was very impressive and changed everything...

Propaganda and indoctrination make it hard to believe what your eyes see. It takes years to believe your own eyes, so it’s no surprise that most people would dismiss to them unverifiable accounts that differed from what they heard daily.

Most Soviet citizens weren't spies or diplomats and had no means or authorization to travel outside of the iron curtain. Pravda was never going to tell the masses about this and that was enough.

If you were to look at stuff coming out of North Korea, you'd see the veneer of wealth and plenty as well.

So the simple answer is "We lie about this, therefore, they must also be lying about this."

The spies would know, but would they risk taking their handlers for fear or being accused of being corrupted by capitalism? Ditto upward every level of the chain.

You don’t even need to fear being shipped off to Siberia; judging by the news, the current administrations of both the USA and the UK are making people afraid to tell them the inevitable consequences of their decisions, and that’s just fear of losing their current jobs.