They hate democracy almost as much as Republicans.

Voting for someone that does not represent you because you are more scared of the other guy is indistinguishable, as a signal, from someone that fully supports them. By voting against your own interests you are actively undermining the democratic process.

Democracy has forever been synonymous with class based societies. It has split entire countries into two barely-distinctive political parties (conservative and "progressive") that are nevertheless permanently at each other's throats. Even in its most libertarian-friendly forms, it has constantly failed to avert hierarchy, coercion and the authoritarian machinations of majority-groups.

If you want to change something, organise and unionise.

Moderates sabotage those efforts.

Well, many democracies do not vote for their president directly – parliament elects one. They are usually from the strongest party, although if enough smaller parties can get a majority, they can elect the president.

Ranked Choice/Single Transferrable Vote are much better systems.

Which moderates will never support.

I live in a solidly red state. The odds of it flipping in the next 20 years is nil. If I vote 3rd party, it

1. tells the entrenched parties that I'd rather have a lunatic than either of their candidates and
2. cause more infighting in the RNC as they will assume the lost vote was meant for them.

We’re trying to minimize our losses as best we can, and right now,

You mean "forever".

If third parties really want to make a change, they need to go after smaller, local elections, you build up a movement from the ground up.

We've tried. Moderates fight us there too.

Moderates will too. Maybe they'll look back and think "Perhaps we should have compromised a bit."

this is literally, 100% right wing propaganda

"vote for the lesser evil" has always sucked... but there's a pretty big difference between neoliberal and guy who directly says he wants to be dictator, already tried to overthrow the government once, and is promising mass deportation (on a genocidal level) and theocracy

if he wins, it's the end of the ability to vote third party...

"Fix everything NOW or I help the fascists make everything worse!"

“I’m going to vote for a dude that will ensure the comfort of westerners at the cost of black and brown lives around the world and I feel good about this because the alternative is worse. Of course my life is more important than someone in Gaza! The status quo of this system isn’t stomping on me as much as it can and I’d like to keep it that way as long as I can. Yes, please focus your stomping boot somewhere else and I’ll continue to vote for that boot. There’s no ethical line I won’t cross to save myself from oppression because I’m a coward who refuses to listen to the oppressed”

Democracy is already dead if we are forced to vote for genocide. It might just take those comfortable with the status quo longer to figure that out.

Ok now do moderates.

All a progressive 3rd party candidate can accomplish is a Biden loss.

Sounds like Biden should make some compromises in order to get those votes then doesn't it?

Leftists and progressives did compromise though. A lot of us voted for Biden in the 2020 general election. Zero compromises came back the other way. As we head into the election there's two major issues Biden could compromise on.

1. Don't support genocide.
2. Don't block strikes.

But the fact that moderates aren't interested in compromising on either of these things and has failed to provide any other meaningful opportunities for compromise means:

Moderates would rather lose to fascists than compromise with leftists and progressives.