While a further drop would hardly surprise any of us, that is a far cry from the ‘surely’ in your original post. Though true too, I feel your fears are overblown just like those of the "sky is falling" posts late last fall.
One of the things I’ve noticed, since I have been paying attention for some time, is that there
is a correlation between FUD and SP dips. It’s just not causal in the way you say.
To the extent there is a causal connection, it’s the other way: The shorts position themselves and in so doing "drop the stock," then or in tandem trot out the usual suspects to spew FUD.
The goal of course is to get folks all mopey and to nudge them to sell their shares, or at least wait till, say, April to buy more.
Not that I take issue with everything you say: Holding for 5+ years is an excellent plan!