I absolutely agree. I do think many men share this kind of stuff all the time, horrible though it is, and I doubt if this was about a working class man anyone would be looking so hard at his sick sense of humour. If you want to see some nasty comments, go and look at a Facebook discussion of any newsworthy accident or tragedy, particularly when there are certain ethnicities involved, or types of people. I think a lot of people on this thread are quite naive as to the extent of it. The commenters are probably fairly normal, pleasant people in every other aspect, and the people claiming these attitudes are rare in younger people will definitely deal with or be around some of these people unknowingly. I have male family members and male friends who I know would share these types of jokes. My late working class dad (think Del Boy and you’re not far off) used to use some fairly colourful (racist) language about different groups of people, and he knew where he could use it (male environments like building sites and his social clubs) and where he couldn’t. The types of place where all the lads have an amusing and often unflattering nickname. To them it’s just banter.
This is a court case, and so we are seeing things which the posters expected to remain entirely private. So they’re going to feel comfortable saying them. As pp said, anyone making those comments would have known that they would be well received, and people on the chat would find them funny. I imagine racism is endemic and that Fife is a pretty horrible place to work as a nurse if you aren't white or don’t share this attitude. I’ve worked with a group of extremely racist women before in a very white environment, you wouldn’t necessarily have known if you didn’t catch them talking about it in private. I asked to move my break, so I didn’t have to sit with them because I thought the comments were awful and yes they were the level of the SP ones. I didn’t give that reason to anyone, including the boss, I made up an excuse why I wanted to change the time, but they were distinctly frosty with me after so I assume they knew, and they considered me prissy and stuck up. Hey ho.
Anyway, this is about an injustice in the workplace. Sandie Peggie’s character, as seen in a snapshot of her private chat, does not mean she isn’t entitled to legal protections when discriminated against or harassed, nor does it prove she would act in a discriminatory way towards anyone in reality. Just like in a rape case when the defence go digging in the complainant’s past, it’s often dirty tactics to undermine her, and it has no bearing on whether or not she was actually violated by the man in question.