It appears that James Dakin, of Bison blog fame (notoriety?), hit the non-biological state of existence last year. You can never tell with bloggers….their deaths can be quite overstated. But, without proof to the contrary…
Announcement from from someone elses blog
I first mentioned his blog about 16 years ago in this post. My first impressions of him were that he was a bitter, classist, misanthrope. In fact, if you peruse my blog you’ll see me use the term ‘evil yuppie survivalist’ which I took directly from Dakin since he had a passionate disdain for anyone who spent money on ‘toys’ like modern firearms and freeze dried food.
He posted comments here from time o time and we had a agree-to-disagree sort of situation going on. I’m sure he saw me as an out-of-touch yuppie survivalist and I saw him as the Matt Foley of survivalism.
Nonetheless, he was entertaining and it was always interesting to read his diatribes. I’m sure that in person he was probably a nice fellow, but we shared little common ground about preparedness except for our utter certainty that it was necessary.
ETA: A quick check of comments showed that his last posting here was twelve days before his passing.
RIP James
CZ, while I questioned some of his prepping advice, I found Jim Dakin’s blog to be interesting, informative, and amusing. Your report of his passing actually causes me to experience a sense of loss. I am very sorry to hear that he is no longer with us.
“lifelong condition”…
That may explain the acidity thing.
The fact that Ol’ Remus linked to him dozens of times says much. I think he did this to keep him encouraged after Rawles took him off the blog roll because of profanity in the posts and comments. Ol’ Remus labeled him “an original thinker”. That’s pretty high praise.
It’s my understanding that he was pursuing Christianity and his blog went dark when he just made a clean break and moved to Florida’s east coast near Jacksonville. I suspected that there was a falling-out between him and the NOL in the Elko trailer court.
RIP Lord Bison. I hope this is not true. I can find no death notice online to confirm it.
Well, he certainly, according to him, had a horrible past of ex-wives.
Johnny:
If Rawles dislikes him, he is someone I want to know more about.
Rawles blocked me for not praising his version of Kool-Aid.
I called some of his favorite people Klu Klux Kretins.
I am proud of this…
Ceejay
I do miss ‘Ol Remus’ blog. Informative and some old fashioned humor.
Hey, I’m the “someone else” you mentioned…thanks for the linkage! My readership went off the charts today.
Jim mentioned your site many a time, I believe he had a lot of respect for your work – whether he’d say so directly or not.
Regarding the lack of a death notice, you’re right, I couldn’t find one either. I was notified directly by his son. I have no other “proof”, but it appeared truthful.
As for moving back to Florida, I doubt it. His last letter to me had his Elko return address, and he passed only a couple weeks later. Not out of the realm of possibility I suppose but according to him, life was good in Elko up until his untimely demise.
~The Boring Old Man
I can confirm his passing. I had been corresponding with him via snail mail for over a year, sending him an SD card filled with subscription podcasts (with permission from the podcast author), personal ideas and internet articles that he could use as “brain fodder” for article ideas, and just general back-and-forth between like-minded souls. He would send back the SD card with only his own personal note and comments.
When I didn’t receive any replies I tried to contact him but without success. Like another commentator noted, I could not find an obituary notice for him online, either.
In his notes he never mentioned anything about moving or a change in status with his NOL, so I don’t have anything to add about that aspect of his life.
A few months later I received a letter from his son letting me know that he had passed. He apparently found a list of the people Jim was sending mail to and graciously let them know of his father’s passing. I offered to send him copies of the letters Jim and I had exchanged on the SD card, and that offer was accepted. I pray that those exchanges brought his son some closure and, hopefully, a few smiles as he read his dad’s thoughts and delightfully snarky comments.
Jim was a treasure, and he will be missed.
Thanks for sharing about the passing of Bison… I was a paid subscriber to his newsletter and was bummed when he stopped sending it monthly. I suppose I knew he had passed but hoped that he chose to disappear as the world was getting crazier. We’ve lost some good ones with his passing and Ol’ Remus… guys who told it like it is in the way that only they could tell it.
CZ, please know that you and your writing is greatly appreciated by your readers. Thank you for what you do.
I called James the Charles Bukowski of survivalist writers. Offbeat, crude, biting wit, original, and way out of the mainstream. He thought it was an insult at first but then read about Bukowski and understood the compliment. His perspective and solutions were worth filing away, even if I never planned to follow his advice on most preparedness issues.
A note related to the lack of an obit. My significant other’s aunt passed this Spring. It was $350 for a small obit in a Mason City Iowa paper. Here in south central MN it would have been over $400 from what the funeral director said. The rest of her cremation etc was just under $3k and that was about as cheap as we could do it with a basic of graveside service.
Steelheart
Sorry to hear of James’ death. I never understood the whole “survival in an RV-internally-displaces-person” lifestyle, but to each his own.
Yes, another great loss to the legitimate prepper survivor sphere. Some times one needs a little acidity in the information sphere to gain more knowledge and insights, because it is all about staying alive. People that critique other’s works are just thin skinned and have sensitive feelings only being hurt by an online diatribe from a website they chose to visit and read is the mark of a candy ass. Jim was right, on just about everything.
Godspeed Lord Bison.
I enjoyed reading Jim’s stuff. Yeah he was crude and glass half empty. In many ways he lived as if it were already TEOTWAWKI and was clearly economically poor.
That said his writing was entertaining and provoked thought. Godspeed him with the great hair Lord Bison!
He was gifted writer and a prepper version of Diogenes or Ambrose Bierce.
He figured out that if the SHTF, you better have a hidey-hole with years of supplies. Very few preppers or survivalists seem to realize that.
Sad 2 hear that.
We are losing so many these days.
It comes for us all. Memento mori.
That’s sad to hear, I was just talking to someone a couple of weeks ago about him and his bare bones preparedness methods. We were talking about how everyone is going for these high tech things, latest and greatest item and I brought him up who I believe was still clinging to the bare bones basic stuff even though he finally broke down and acquired a AR over his beloved Mosin’s. I wonder how long his blog site will be up, for all the years he’s been posting – there’s still a lot of good info to be picked from it and used in today’s world.
RIP Jim. I was shocked when I called and found out he died. He was a good friend and I loved my visits to his place.
I remember Jim/Bison from back in the day when everything was done by zines. He was an interesting character, and his correspondence was always welcome. RIP Mr. Dakin.
Where have you been these days?
I had a lot of respect for Bison. Sorry to hear he passed. RIP Jim.
Dang.
I’m absolutely gutted to hear this. His blog was my favourite read. Full of humour and legitimate survivalist theory put into real world poor man practice. That is, everyone gets a chance to prepare and survive regardless of your financial position.
I was his first patreon sign up and was bummed that didn’t work out for him. I bought every ebook he put out and enjoyed them immensely
We exchanged messages back and forth numerous times but I’m not in the U.S. so I didn’t think it’d have been doable when he went offline. I had been trying to reconnect with him for a while now.
Is there a place I can source his offline work (the stuff he was sending out)?
Damn, I’m legitimately upset at this news.