2. Cold War Paranoia Was Intense
The international crisis that began in the years following the end of World War II was spiking to intense levels during the 1980s. Ronald Reagan was making speeches in which he called the Soviet Union the “evil empire,” and you could be questioned by anyone who suspected that you might not be a full-bodied patriotic American.
There are even references to Cold War paranoia in Stranger Things. Consider the shadowy government organization that conducts top-secret experiments in a small town in Indiana. No one was safe, which is kind of the whole point of the show.