"Radical" in feminist parlance isn't a judgment call or a marker of extremism -- it describes a particular school of thought, one which favors overturning existing gender dynamics rather than incrementally changing or working within them. I've met several self-identified radical feminists.
I don't think these statements are entirely vacuous. Even when their content is little more than a tautology, their actual meaning is something else entirely, at least in politics; they represent that the speaker is aware of the jargon, willing to use it, essentially moderate/"pragmatic" and prone to maintaining the status quo.
These experiences sound like synesthesia, in case anyone's unfamiliar with the concept and wants further reading.