Who is behind this website?
I didn’t intend to introduce myself at first, after all it shouldn’t matter who writes something as long as the argumentation is coherent. But it does matter! If I want to read an article about black matter and I have two to choose from, one written by a professor of genetics and one written by a professor of space engineering, I would like to know in advance who wrote which article. And when I read something on a website about a controversial topic, I would also like to know the background of the author to be able to assess what expertise she has and by what biases she might be influenced. So, in order not to surprise you and to give you a rough idea of who you are dealing with, here is a short overview about me (and in case you don’t want to read all of it, you will find the mentioned key points color-coded for an even quicker overview):
I was born in Germany in 1987. After graduating from high school I moved to the Netherlands to study and stayed there. I studied Psychology (BSc.), then Cognitive Neuroscience (Research Master, MSc.), and then I did my PhD (Neuroscience). So now you know where my expertise lies (Research and Science, for example) and where it doesn‘t (Psychology, for example. My studies are too long ago and a lot of “knowledge” is surely outdated by now. In addition, I unfortunately had to realize that the methods in psychological research often left much to be desired, which makes it very difficult for me to believe anything at all about what I learned in terms of content).
I have a woman’s body and no problem with that. However, if I woke up tomorrow as a man, that would probably be fine too. I would even see quite a few advantages in it. I assume that my husband wouldn‘t be particularly thrilled, though 😉 . I am married. Getting married was never a life goal, but since I really like the idea of growing old together with my current partner, and being married takes care of many things automatically, it seemed practical for us to get married and a good opportunity to celebrate with friends and family. My two children were born in late 2017 and early 2020.
I’m white. I write that so you know that if I ever speak out on the subject of racism, I have never experienced racism myself. Sexism, however, I have, and for my part, in order not to discriminate, I try to educate myself on what I should and should not do to avoid hurting or disadvantaging other people and instead become an ally for them, if possible.
I would describe myself as an optimistic realist – most of the time, anyway. To the best of my knowledge, even if it often seems the opposite, we are making progress after all. Not in all areas, though, and perhaps not as quickly as would be prudent, but in general, progress is being made. And even if humanity does indeed wipe itself out, life goes on, just without us….
I had a bit of a Catholic upbringing, but left the church many years ago. For one thing, I’m not religious anyway, and for another, the Catholic Church is completely unacceptable on many levels. Astrology, chakras, or homeopathy equally failed to make sense. However, I am interested in why people are generally attracted to these subjects and what human needs they address.
I have been living vegan for over ten years. It is important to me not to live at the expense of others, where possible, and I do not exclude non-human creatures from that. I don’t want to cause unnecessary suffering and in this day and age and with the resources available, it is unnecessary to consume animal products that animals have to suffer and die for. Furthermore, the production of animal products causes a lot of avoidable suffering for humans as well, so a non-vegan lifestyle is out of the question for me.
And finally, here is one of my favorite quotes, which probably gives a good idea of my moral stance (though I probably got many of my ethical beliefs from Star Trek TNG, but that would lead too far at this point 😉 ) :
People strictly reject compromise when they feel strong, and are eager to reconcile when they find themselves in the weaker position.
(by an author unknown to me).
I think this should give you a rough idea about who I am. It should help you to correctly classify what I write.
With kind regards,
RE