My branch didn't have an explicit mentor-mentee program like that but the fact that there was an old guard (in every branch, as far as I saw) that relied on the constant churn of college students doing the busywork definitely made for that kind of dynamic. @PowerLurker@hexbear.net 's read of this post ("centralized leadership demanding blind faith, zero real internal democracy, and a feeling of a corporatized internal culture where rank and file cadre are treated as dutiful little employees all ring extremely true") applies 100% to how the ISO operated. It was during the Trump years that some of these contradictions became untenable, because there were so many new members and it was a lot more clear that it didn't have to be like that. But anytime we tried to argue against the "campus orientation" we were treated like we were bringing up a long-settled struggle session, and no more struggle on it would be tolerated, even though the times and circumstances had changed and the internal failures of it were as obvious as you say.