It's getting upvotes because indignation + sensationalism always gets the most upvotes (this is the weakness of the upvoting system [1]), plus the meta aspect is a force multiplier. Also age discrimination is a perennially hot topic here.
It's also getting a lot of flags, which is why the post is not on HN's front page. Just in case anyone is wondering, there's no moderation penalty on it. The tug of war between upvotes and flags is the cycle of life on HN [2]. It's quite normal for a sensational post to get a rapid sugar rush of upvotes, followed by other users flagging it once they see (and don't want to see) it on the front page.
It's also getting a lot of flags, which is why the post is not on HN's front page. Just in case anyone is wondering, there's no moderation penalty on it. The tug of war between upvotes and flags is the cycle of life on HN [2]. It's quite normal for a sensational post to get a rapid sugar rush of upvotes, followed by other users flagging it once they see (and don't want to see) it on the front page.
[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...