He's not clueless. He perfectly knows that what he's saying is complete bullshit.

I doubt he’s clueless.

He has been victim-blaming since Facebook was founded. (Remember the comments about how FB’s users were stupid to hand all that data over?)

Why expect him to stop at battered women or political refugees?

One of the first things we were told in HS psyc, was that people had multiple roles, and in different contexts they behaved differently.

That isn't dishonest, that is behaving according to the role given.

Or the wrong religion, or none, or an apostate, or gay, or...

He cares more that his advertising database is accurate

You still believe it’s for advertising?

You don't? Please elaborate.

Not the original comment poster, but control over people is probably becoming if not already worth more than the ad business.

Facebook is not a small entity, they have overthrown governments and caused civil wars in third countries already.

Facebook is fundamentally a behavioral data company. Maximizing profits entails extracting, predicting, prescribing and controlling behavior, which is in the shareholders best interest.

However, FB needs a moot around their castle, so it acts via third parties, such as Cambridge Analytica.

And even if FB would not engage in large scale behavioral influencing, then through US law, various three letter agencies can force FB to hand over the data, all the while muting the company to disclose such practices.