Because they have a LOT of money riding on convincing people not to vote blue. Gee, I wonder who benefits from that most.

It’s weird how you call your country a democracy but are forced to make choices you’re not at all comfortable with.

Soll explain to us how voting for any third party would change anything for the better.

But those aren't mutually exclusive things. Voting for the Dems doesn't prevent you from doing those other things in the meantime.

If you only have two real choices that will affect the outcome and one of them is better than the other, voting for neither of them just makes things harder for those that would have made it slightly better. More compromises have to be made and that means the situation can't improve.

I see constant posts about how Trump splitting their base is going to mean the end of the Republican party but that seems very short sighted. It is a simple matter of natural selection, and in a two party system only two parties will ever exist. It also inherently gravitates to very close races between those parties. Any split of the Republican party might cause a term or two of chaos, but it is just a matter of time before something fills the vacuum and balance is restored.

Each party would prefer to move further towards their end of the spectrum, but they are forced to move their values (or choose more centrist candidates) until they have enough of a majority to win.

Gerrymandering, the electoral college, what's left of the judicial branch, apathetic voters, parasitic third parties, and wedge issues have allowed the Republicans to shift further right while maintaining their power. The only possible response to that from the Dems is to also shift right as well. If they didn't the Republicans would just end up with trifectas or super majorities.

Trump was also able to shift racist/authoritarian/nationalist policies much further right by shifting his fiscal policies further left than what Republicans normally would do. His whole campaign was based on deficit spending (tax cuts without any real cost cutting, stimulus COVID spending, etc), public works (multi billion dollar worthless walls), and his focus on blue collar workers (not directly supporting unions but he pushed anti China + US manufacturing boosts).

Every vote for a third party is one less vote that the Republicans need to gain, which is a little more right that they can slide and maintain power, and since natural selection links the two parties it is also a little further right that the Democrats have to slide to maintain their power as well.

If you want to shift things left voting third-party won't do it. Third parties have no power to make changes and never will in our current system.

Voting for the only party that has a chance of winning and is willing to make voting reforms to improve that system is the only hope of shifting the parties to the left where the actual political center of the country lies.

Voting for anyone else is illogical and won't prevent this genocide. Protests, and organizations can maybe help in the short term to push the Democrats to change course but it also disenfranchises more voters to not show up, and pushes more to vote for third parties... And so the snowball tumbles down the hill to the right gaining momentum leaving us with frankly no good choice.

It's the only realistic option at this point. You can still protest the genocide in Gaza AFTER the election (and I fully support you doing so, Hell I might even meet you at one), but look at it this way: if Kamala wins, you have a chance to make a change over there, but if Trump wins again, every Palestinian is as good as dead. Do I like either option? No! Do I think our elections are a good system? No! Am I going to vote for Kamala anyway? Yes! Because at this point, the choice is between shooting ourselves in the foot or in the temple

That is a valid question in isolation, but bringing it up in discussions on where to vote is not leading to discussions or actionable improvements. It only functions to push voter disenfrachisement.

Not saying it's your intention, but it is your effect.

Voting least bad is important. Don't discourage it.

Working for better voting options is also important. Do push for that too, but find a constructive setting for it.

Because it is.

A normally blue voter voting 3rd party is indirectly helping Trump win the election. Do you think Trump's Israel policy is going to be better than Harris's?

Just say you want Trump to win, we can all tell.