Meme pages mirthful as Steve Mav deletes social media
Tasmania’s meme admins have ridiculed the legacy of political eccentric Steve Mav, who deleted all of his social media accounts and withdrew from public life on Sunday.
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Tasmania’s meme admins have ridiculed the legacy of political maverick Steve Mav, who deleted all of his social media accounts and withdrew from public life on Sunday.
The formerly prolific poster had over 23,000 Facebook followers, eclipsing premier Jeremy Rockliff’s 8000 followers and the Tasmanian Liberal party’s online following of 12,500.
Following his 2022 Federal election loss Mr Mav announced he would be stepping down as a public figure and would never again be running for political office.
The announcement was met with glee from Mav Memes 2: Wave Harder, which is the largest meme page dedicated to ridiculing Mr Mav’s political ambitions.
“Take a bow everyone who shared our memes with someone who may have otherwise voted for Mav. Victory!”, one post declares.
Following his retirement announcement, the meme page admin penned an open letter addressed to Mr Mav.
“The fact is, Steve, you’ve done nothing for the Tasmanian people. All you’ve done is demonize Greens voters, Labor voters, transgender people, Chinese-Australians, cyclists, and virtually anybody else who dares to disagree with you,” it reads.
“You’re unelectable because you’re a toxic person, and the idea that you’ve ‘served’ us during your narcissistic quest is almost as laughable as the vote tallies that you’ve accrued along the way.”
The admin, who wished to remain anonymous, said they remained sceptical over whether Mav would stay in political retirement, since he had previously announced his intentions never to run for office again.
Their scepticism was shared by the Craig Farrell Memes for Transit Positive Teens meme page, which posted a meme mocking Mav for “almost always” retiring.
Mr Mav’s own Facebook had shared hundreds of memes, many of which were anti-vax, anti-immigration, and pro-death-penalty.
One was a selfie video where he compares the Australian government to Nazi germany, and another was a swastika comparing the vaccine rollout to Nazi Germany.
“The NAZIS used humans to experiment different vaccines and medicines against their will. Our country today has Liberal, Labor, Greens and Jacqui Lambie Network pushing for the jab that may lead to millions around the world to suffer long term health effects on trial vaccines,” Mr Mav’s post read.
“The NAZIS persecuted minorities including the Jews and Gypsies. Our country today has Liberal, Labor, Greens and Jacqui Lambie Network persecuting minorities who do not want to be forced to take the jab.”
The Mercury asked the Tasmanian Government whether Mr Mav’s swastika meme would fall under their proposed anti-swastika legislation.
A government spokesperson said they could not comment since the legislation had not been drafted yet.
Attorney-General Elise Archer said they would consult with the community before introducing the proposed law reform.
“Our Government strongly condemns the display and sale of the swastika or other hate symbols when used for hate and fear, and recognises this material is highly offensive and causes immense distress to many people,” Ms Archer said.
“This is an issue that is deeply concerning to our Government and many Tasmanians, and we need to ensure that our current laws appropriately reflect community expectations.”
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