Who's voting this crap up? Seriously, does this trash deserve a #1 spot on the front page?
Once something hits the front page it usually will garner enough votes to stay there for a while, once it goes above the fold it is going to go into a feedback loop simply because that's the page that most people start from when they read HN.
That and plenty of people vote based on titles, not on articles. That could be mitigated by requiring a click on the link before allowing you to vote an article up.