We all were raised in a society filled with deception, mind control, propaganda, cults, and spiritual subversion. Now I can more clearly see how this affects parent to child relationships, our bonds of trust, plus sexual attraction and intimacy.
That we were told (and even believed) that we lived in a free society only makes the cruelty worse. Yet despite all this, here we are. Somehow we have not yet wholly succumbed. The spark of humanity is very hard to extinguish.
The paradox of evil is that it takes wickedness for us to fully see our innate goodness.