The biggest determinant of a company's stock price is not the company. It's beta, interest rates, and a multitude of other factors. The idiosyncratic return and variance of most companies is quite small compared to the systematic return and variance described by other factors.

> there are all kinds of ways a malicious actor can and do manipulate stock prices that have exactly ZERO to do with the companies finances

Over a time horizon of a year to a few years, short selling cannot artificially depress stock price relative to market. So if you are truly long it should make no difference and you should probably cash in by writing options.