Reddit mentions of The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think

I really hope you're getting the help you need, and I know that some comments on the Internet are not going to snap you out of your depression, but I just want to let you know that the world has always faced challenges and we have always risen up to meet them. Although climate change is going to be pretty bad and we are not doing enough right now to stop it, no major scientific body considers "the end of civilization" as plausible scenarios for at least the next 100 years. And there are a lot of promising technologies that can stop and even reverse climate change in the not-too-distant future. I recommend these books, The Optimistic Leftist and Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. The future is not inevitable, and there is a lot we can do right now to change things and put us on a better path.

> No one uses the word "leftist" who hasn't had conservative kool aid

That's simply not true, I know many leftists who self-describe as such, because they don't attach to a specific left tendency but they want to distinguish themselves from liberals. I'm one of them.

On the other hand, the rampant anti-China bias on reddit is palpable and I think many (most?) Western leftists are drinking the propaganda regarding China produced by Western capitalist governments. Like virtually all Western accounts of socialism, there is a bit of truth to each story, but wildly exaggerated and not placed in the proper context. That's how geopolitical foes characterize each other--socialist regimes do it too. It's ridiculous to swallow English-language Western accounts of Chinese socialism whole with little to no skepticism.

edit: from the first two pages of Google results for "leftist":

• a book written by a progressive author titled "The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think"
  
  
• The Marxist Internet Archive's list of global left-wing parties, titled "Leftist Parties of the World
  
  
• A paper by left-wing intellectual Slavoj Zizek, titled "A Leftist Plea for 'Eurocentrism'"