It took the Chinese Communist government several weeks to shut down all the faxes and computer connections that were feeding news from the outside world to the dissidents after Tien An Min Square. And China is a police state with a tiny fraction of the number of phone lines, faxes, and computers that the US has. In science fiction of the 1984 genre technology always seemed to favor the centralization of authority and the death of individual freedom. It looks as if quite the opposite is true when it comes to science non-fiction. It's just plain silly to think that sex determines taste in colors.
Most men are so easy to manipulate with fear.
They are just so concerned about how masculine they appear to others. Because they carry a Y-chromosome they think they have to carry the weight of the world too. Good boy, I don't want to bear the awful responsibility of diminishing your manhood. They might think you are funny too. Better hit that back button right now.