I try not to merge my personal blog with my medical one, or even immerse myself in political positions, but the intersection here was just too inviting.
For whatever reasons, I am situated in the prosperous part of America as are my children. We have professional degrees, economic stability, take personal and political positions that are in strong opposition not just to depravity itself but to its enablers. It's part of the politically Blue America with little crossover and barriers to entry to those not already there.
Many doctors seem to have averted this intersectionality. Sermo in my opinion has deteriorated, not just changed, into an echo chamber of thought that the posters probably wouldn't want on their office doors with their real names and Photo ID's. Yet they have my same education, most a higher income if not greater net worth. I don't know any of these frequent right wing posters personally, and very few in my professional interactions. I suspect they are not the cohort that gets invited to present at national meetings, as medicine has its upper and lower hierarchy just as medicine does.
I suspect that we have slid in the direction of wage earners besieged and trying to hang on in an increasingly insecure professional world. It comes not only at the expense of the autonomy which so many of us mourn, but also at the inherent dignity of medicine. The posts that increasingly dominate Sermo are a too often long way from benevolent with virtually no one interested in refuting it. If I, as a person loyal to medicine opt to walk away from this forum rather than stake my claim, it won't take long for the public to appreciate this as well and write us off as the Lesser Half of America.
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