Parents grew up under authoritarian communism. Their stance is and always has been “social programs rocked, being under that government sucked”. No amount of decent living standards will ever make up for the possibility of imprisonment because you disobeyed the ruling party (and disobeying included things like having the wrong haircut, let alone the wrong gender identity).

The colour of the uniform is unimportant. The literature is unimportant. The slogans are unimportant. The leader is unimportant. At the end of the day, you’ll still be stuck with a police state telling you how to dress, how to act, how to think, fascist or communist.