A good example of people misunderstanding things is that shorts crash the market.
First, the use of the term "crash" for maybe a 20% drop is a good example of a widespread hyperbole.
Second, as a person who are shorting
you have a lot more to lose than you can gain. Unlike a trader or an investor that uses the money they already have, shorts borrow it. The maximum they can earn is equal to the (share price at the time of transaction) x (amount of shares). The amount they can lose is hypothetically infinite. If you send in a short order thinking it'll drop within a week, but the shares go by 10x, you'll lose that much.
hoping to be able to make a profit by buying them back at a price lower than the selling price.
You are dealing with real money here, so actual shorts put a target that's realistic rather than something stupid like $0. In essence, they provide the floor for how low the stock can go. In a way, they can be like an emergency brake for an elevator.
What gets the stock lower and lower is FOMO but in an opposite direction. Well, Fear. The people who believe in it start selling, and the "longs", the investors start selling. Sometimes it's just coincidence. There isn't a direct reason for everything folks!
The lesson here is that governments are mislead just like individuals. They investigated trying to find this short sale individual but found nothing. The president at the time responsible for the investigation later admitted governments can end up burning the barn to kill a single rat.
So be careful what you wish for. You may be angry, but they are just your emotions and yours alone. If that's done in a country level, and it's the wrong decision, millions even billions will get hurt.