It is completely discriminatory in B. when the only people who could possibly meet those inflated expectations can not logically be under the age of 30. I've seen this far too often to dismiss it as occasional - it is/was systemic.
It's the burden of the accuser to claim they were discriminated against because of age, and as we can see, there's no qualms with making lots and lots of articles and "think-pieces" out of the hypothesis. Sometimes "older" workers have unreasonably inflated senses of skills and/or worth, and can't take the ego blow, so, off to coping (see A) above.
Haha thanks for the armchair therapy with D., it's worth every penny from your barely 30 perspective.
I've seen this more with younger workers. In fact, that was me exactly 10 years ago.
A. Turnabout is not fair play; two wrongs do not make a right, especially when your wrong is to discriminate against people other than those who may have discriminated against you
B. Inflated expectations != discrimination
C. Discriminating against someone because they are too old is illegal; discriminating against someone because they are too young is not (both are equally wrong).
D. "I'm rather bitter and sometimes it shows" - Get over it.