Otherwise conventional, even admirable, families have been spawning the occasional rebel since forever. Tyler Robinson appears to be one of these.
I’ve had a home in a predominantly LDS area for over 30 years and have friends in the faith. Glenn K. Beaton’s Aspen Beat paints a picture of the Robinsons as a typical Utah Mormon family - close, religious, very family oriented, achievers, conservative law-abiding Republicans.
And then there was Tyler, a better than average high school student who dropped out of college after less than a year, who at 22 was still living at home. He had a newish car but we haven’t heard if he had a job to go to. We do know he was an online gamer. And he was, according to friends, the only progressive in a conservative family.
He appears to have been an outlier in terms of politics, maybe religion, and not building a career and family of his own. We don’t hear he went on a “mission” for a year as nearly all young LDS men, and some women do. We don’t hear he had a girlfriend. Several of the things he would need to fit in with his family and his society weren’t working.
Assuming he was truly the shooter, his act was at once a repudiation of his family, his church, academia, and more or less everything within which he grew up. He seemingly leaves no “manifesto” and not much online footprint, but somehow picked up some Antifa ideology. It seems every square-hole generation spawns a handful of these round pegs who don’t fit.
Several questions about Tyler need answering, one hopes journalists will try to provide answers. The most recent 18% of his life is a nearly blank slate. We can infer he spent some time learning marksmanship and weapon skills. He has had money to spend.
Has he had employment for the 4 years since high school? Has he had romantic interests - girlfriends or boyfriends? Has he been sitting at home playing online games? Is he an incel? Has he done or sold drugs? Been a Uber driver? Been rioting in Portland with Antifa? Has he done anything at all?
Other questions need answers. How did Tyler know where Kirk would speak, early enough to scout out a sniper “nest” with a clear view of his intended victim? Normally doors to building roofs are kept locked, how did he get access? Even if that was a standard speaker rostrum, since he was not a student there, who fed him info? Had he been hanging around the campus, hooking up with other progressives? It feels like he must have had help, co-conspirators.
