Men are lonely, you’ve probably heard. “Few men will admit it, but it’s true of most of them,” declared Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero in one in a tsunami of recent takes on the “male loneliness epidemic.” Guerrero partially blamed the “virtual world” and its “pornography and ideological provocation.”

Standing before The Spirit of Detroit, a landmark bronze statue in the city’s downtown, in the early hours of a Wednesday morning, Abdul El-Sayed channelled boxing great Muhammad Ali. “We shook up the world,” he declared. The 41-year-old former public health official had just delivered a knockout blow to the