[krajzeg]

Radical ideology craves credibility. I would suppose that for that reason, the regimes interested in treating a subset of people as inferior would look for experts who could testify to that fact. These end up being doctors and psychiatrists, since they are considered authorities on the human body and mind respectively.

As for doctors themselves, I would think they are exactly like any other group of people: when a radical regime establishes itself, some will embrace it, some will be bullied into compliance, and others will be violently opposed. You can find examples of all of those in any historical regime.

[motohagiography]

I think what twigged me is the expectation that doctors are supposed to be better than that. Doctors are explicity not like any other group of people. The whole point in giving them the immense powers we do comes with the expectation that when it falls to them to be brave or noble, they are willing to take that responsibility. Otherwise, there is no reason not to have barbers do most surgeries, apothacaries prescribe drugs, and nurses make treatment decisions, especially given the technological advances of even the last 30 years.

These are people who explicitly must not be seized by mass political hysterias, and it's not a right/left thing, as they seem like a necessary constituency in every totalitarian movement. Other professions, like judges and guards you can just appoint from the ranks of true believers, most professors can be relied upon to be complicit, and their institutions can tell whatever legitimizing story you bully them into. Doctors (and perhaps armed police) are the only ones with leverage, which means it is their personal responsibility to guard against this stuff, imo.

[confidantlake]

In an ideal world yes, but in the real one they are just normal people like you and me. Some are good, some bad, some in the middle. My personal experience has been the overwhelming majority have been kind, intelligent people. But even if 5% are bad, that is still enough for any despotic regime to make use of.

[motohagiography]

I would agree with the small minority argument, but it still understates their impact. They aren't like you or I either, because when you spend an extra decade in school, their life experiences are essentially alien to people outside it. Cops are similar, where at a point, you have to ask how good the rest of a closed loop and gated network could be if they haven't isolated the worst ones. Doctors as a profession lost a lot of public trust over the pandemic because of the few who gave up their integrity to become political actors, and then the colleges punished doctors who stood up to them. The problem is that the 5%-bad minority just happen to be in the professional governance and administration, similar to how police union/associations were responsible for the worst abuses.