Feminists

You referred to problems that can face a DUer who is "a feminist or other type of liberal or civil rights activist...."

I was simply expanding on your comment. I believe that the type of alert abuse you described also affects other DUers, and is in fact sometimes employed by people who would vehemently proclaim themselves to be feminists or other type of liberal or civil rights activists. If you agree with me, I'm glad, but that wasn't obvious from your OP.

I certainly agree with you in rejecting all-or-nothing thinking, at least when it comes to civility on DU. More than once, I've been called to jury a post that I thought was clearly wrong but not hideable; then when I read the alerter's explanation, the stupidity of the alert has astounded me. Thus, I know first-hand that there are people who agree with me about a particular issue but who can still abusively alert about that issue.