Did college radicalize Tyler Robinson?

In the video, Tyler Robinson tells his family he's won a college scholarship. Four years later, his father turned him into police for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the Utah Valley State campus.

Did college radicalize the honor student? It doesn't seem likely.

For one thing, Robinson dropped out of Utah State -- possibly the nation's most conservative public university -- after a semester of pre-engineering courses. He transferred to an electrician apprenticeship program at a technical college near his parents' home.

I wonder if he dropped out because of emotional problems. Or perhaps he spent so much time online in meme world that he lost track of reality. Quillette's Claire Lehman blames "online brain rot" rather than ideology.

Megan McArdle warns in the Washington Post of the risks of "monstering" political opponents and fomenting violence.

"The most obvious place to start is with the legions of keyboard warriors, 101st Chairborne Division, who enjoy spinning online fantasies about hurting their political opponents — or glorifying those who do, like Luigi Mangione," she writes. Signaling your "ideological purity" and making yourself feel tough gives ideas to the unhinged. "So stand down and knock it off. You are not a member of the online French Resistance; you are a soft and silly adolescent engaging in performative sociopathy to compensate for your real-world deficits."

Some of the people celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk are teachers. Please, folks. If you think Trump supporters or abortion opponents or transgender skeptics or gun rights defenders deserve to die, keep it to yourself. Don't let your students find out you're OK with someone killing their parents.