Capitalism isn’t all sweetness and light. If you own shares in a company you are expecting them to eventually pay you back, for example by dividends. This is money that could otherwise have gone to find a treatment for cancer (per your example - don’t take this too seriously).
Short sellers will on aggregate be wrong, the market goes up overtime. The short sellers are going to be there either way, if you have conviction in a stock, then it shouldn’t worry you, they will be buying it high and and selling higher.
By this logic though, people selling stock are also working actively against your interests, as are everyone else who is not buying that particular stock.
Freetrade offer a service for free to a large extent, but they are also a company that needs to make money, so this is what is in it for you, not paying the fees of HL or AJ bell.
And yeah, some people just wanna watch the world burn.
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