If a doctor said that the only way to save you is this life altering procedure... and you asked how? And they said "No, you are not a doctor"... Well that wouldn't happen. Even assuming a doctor wouldn't debate you on this (and they MIGHT), they would at least give you every bit of information you need... You can petition the medical board, get second opinions, find other individuals.
Actually this is a terrible example.
How the fuck should I know what a doctor tells me? Ask a
different doctor? Ask him to explain years of medical knowledge? No. I've had enough of these people who think they know as much as doctors. Or even, that they
should know as much as a doctor. What madness! At the end of the day, you have to put your life in the hands of people who cannot explain to you what it is that they are going to do. Not because they can't explain it, in general, but because you personally do not know enough about being a doctor to know what they mean. They can explain it to you through metaphors, but that's not
really how it works; that's a simplified version, as if for children. If one doctor disagrees with another, how are you supposed to figure it out? Because
more doctors tell you it should be X, instead of Y? What's the difference between you and the nutty anti-vaxxer who hunts for a doctor to support their ridiculous anti-vaccine views?
Basically, yeah. You are at the mercy of a profession. A group of people with hidden knowledge giving you simplified versions of reality for your own good.
And that is ok. Not everyone needs to be a doctor. No more than that everyone needs to be a scientist, or an internet technician, or a lawyer, or any and every other professional field. Frankly no one has
time for that. We're all mortals with finite time on this earth, so we learn things on a need-to-know basis. A doctor wouldn't tell you "No, I am a doctor", but honestly, wouldn't it be fair to? Who cares what you think you know about medicine, really? How many times has someone come up to you about a subject you're an expert on, and said "Well no that's not how it works?" Or gone on and on about their ridiculous misconception of what you say until you give up and say "Just let me do my job?" Like we need more
people idiots on this earth complaining about "expert knowledge"...
Judge on the basis of "Other people listen to these doctors and get better/worse" because that's A) The only thing you should care about, and B) The only thing you can actually be the judge of. Anything else and you're just annoying someone more knowledgeable then you are.