Almost everything reported about the Cambridge Analytica controversy is wrong

This is the best analysis of the situation that I've read. IMO, it convincingly demolishes the nonsense about psychographic microtargeting in political campaigns.

What this pays no attention to is the fact that every election won by a Democrat or Republican is won against third party candidates, and that is where targeted psychological manipulation was particularly effective, especially at making Trump supporters out of voters that might have voted third party.

The 2016 US election was - for a very significant portion of voters - about what candidate you hated or feared the least, not which candidate best expressed a voter's ideals. Targeted advertising took this fear, and exasperated it in many voters.