So this is a legit thing. You don't know all the facts, there can be reasons CEO asshats say things. But there are also times you have to think hard about what you trust: do you trust your core knowledge, or do you assume they know better? Remember, CEO level people have KPI which is about shareholder benefits, not necessarily reality, or ethics.

I sat in on an 'all hands' briefing once where a CEO level guy spent 2hrs demanding we code a 3D VR shopping mall for him to sell to local stores. When I started talking about how immature the market was (this was 1994 and most people were on dialup) I got roasted. Afterwards, the CTO said he did that randomly, to get dominance, it was just how he chose to behave in a room, in order to "win". I didn't stay in that company long.