If you look at the few individuals who have been caught abducting people and torturing them were they people who otherwise engaged primarily in vanilla sex or were they BDSM practitioners? Is the sample of such people large enough and well documented enough to draw any conclusion from? My feeling is there is no correlation between the BDSM and such horrific practices but since I cannot stand reading sensational reports about such crimes I know little about these types of criminals. If you want to infer that a correlation exists between the two behaviours you need to offer some proof beyond, "It sounds reasonable to me."
While I noted that there was little hostility to BDSM on the list but some of the support is kind of half-assed. Woj's comment about his opposition to denouncing the practice while not condoning the practice itself is an example. I can see where Brian would get the feeling that there is little support for BDSM on this list. While I'm not surprised I am a bit disappointed that there is tepid opposition based on such odd ideas and less than vigorous support except from just a few.
The idea that BDSM is somehow a sexual straight-jacket when compared to other sex practices strikes me as very odd as does the idea that the consent involved is anything like the coerced consent of wage laborers. These both seem like straining for a reason to oppose BDSM when no other reason can be found.
Chuck's comment that "I think that kinksters are more sexually liberated and enjoy more freedom than people who just muck along." is equally wrong. There is no reason to believe that following one or the other or any other sexual preference is more liberating and/or enjoyable than any other. Sex is what you make of it. There is no reason to imagine that the percentage of unliberated vanilla sex practitioners is higher than the percentage of unliberated B&D practitioners.
I don't want to put word's in Woj's mouth but when he wrote "this is precisely what I find most frightening and uncomfortable." I was under the impression he was stating this as a personal expression in that he did not like the sensation of being immobilized himself, not that he found any of the described ideas frightening and uncomfortable when being practiced by others. He'll have to tell you himself if that was his intention but that was how I read it.
John Thornton