Consider emailing the site admins (footer Contact link) and ask them for a userpref to disable italics. They provided the italics feature and so it will be used

Consider emailing the site admins (footer Contact link) and ask them for a userpref to disable italics. They provided the italics feature and so it will be used for various purposes, but if it's materially impacting your ability to use the site, they'll certainly want to hear about that. I'm not guaranteeing that they will reply or agree, as I'm not an admin. Do you have any recommendations for browser addons/extensions/etc. that strip italics from all sites? I wasn't able to find any in a simple search and I imagine you'd have more experience in this area for others seeing your comment, agreeing with it, and then wishing something like that existed.