> Anyone involved with GME knows this isn’t true.

People involved with GME used to refer themselves as the "Apes", and reading their main forum on /r/wallstreetbets back then, that would be a pretty accurate characterization of what they "know".

I actually think the opposite. Causing a short squeeze is market manipulation. Regulatory agencies let it happen anyway because it was done by random nobodies.

If a short squeeze happens that by definition means the shorts were over zealous.

If a market allows shorts it should allow a squeeze as a mechanism of balance.

The market allows short squeezes. SEC too. What the SEC doesn't allow is the deliberate triggering of short squeezes.

I'll believe their not allowing it when their soft gums and limp regulations have teeth again. Fines are a cost of doing business in many cases, unfortunately.

The vast majority of regulation is there to protect CERTAIN market participants.

The vast majority of the nasty stuff that happened around GME was not the work of regulators trying to hurt ordinary investors.