The everything was totally great some other time some other place myth is a myth.

It's used and repeated by classical liberals to ease their mental dissonance.

Let's say you're a Jordan Peterson / Steven Pinker / Douglas Murray.

The difference between these types and the zombies is that they retain some autonomy. But they still play by all the rules.

So they have the ability to notice some things. Surely there must be a Rational explanation for these hate facts and statistics.

But they must also follow The Science, which is telling them that "this has absolutely nothing to do with biology, and also biology doesn't exist, neither does evolution, not when it comes to humans, don't think too much about this, just no biology, that's it, now be distracted, go away, we're all just totally exactly the same, and the only thing that separates us is how much we've been oppressed, The Science has spoken".

How to resolve this seeming conflict?

Oh I know, they think, it's all because of the government! When the government wasn't giving out any welfare, everyone was totally just great! Just don't go reading no old timey news papers or look up no outdated statistics!