let me spell it out for you, since you apparently can't connect the dots yourself....short selling, you can do it without options

and brokers have many ways to technically "find shares" to borrow that essentially boil down to just ignoring all do-not-borrow designations people might utilize

shorting is artificial sell pressure used with abandon in US markets under the justification of "increasing liquidity", when in practice it's a tool used to extract liquidity. at a high enough level, all you need to be profitable trading is volume to trade into, and when the market is "exciting" more people trade

after 2000-2008 the majority of the rest of world massively cracked down on naked shorting, the US just slightly tightened leverage ratios (which there are dozen different ways for big funds to ignore)