Does Facebook have standards on what kind of ads are served? Does Facebook try to connect people with ads that are relevant? Somehow even if you are trying to _do the right thing_, the author still can't fathom why you'd sink so low as to work for Facebook.
I think that's the point of disagreement. Advertising is often inane and wasteful, but in my opinion it's not fundamentally evil.
If we serve more relevant ads resulting in clicks/sales/etc, we get more revenue. We get happier advertisers, and give users access to things they demonstrably want. There is a clear alignment of incentives to have good standards and to try to square that circle. There are other "crosswinds" which make this task hard, but also (to me) a very interesting optimization problem.
People can (and should) complain when we fail to do it right. But to assume the worst, or to write off the entire industry because we make money from advertising, leaves no room for a meaningful discussion.
