I've seen them too and I obviously feel the same way they do. To answer your question I've been using italics just about as long as I've been writing and typing. There's nothing sarcastic, stern or pissed off about it. So nothing to figure out just a style of writing just like many others. Which goes back to what I said before, just because a group of people do things a certain way doesn't mean you should blindly follow suite.
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