1. As someone who wrote a book about the real Thomas Paine, I'm here to tell you that this right-wing conspiracy dude who wrote under Paine's name clearly knows nothing about the historical figure he claims to be channeling.
2. There are about a dozen people on Twitter who use Paine in their handle or picture. The buzzfeed article exposes the identity of this Twitter figure who has a penchant for spreading pro-Trump fake news. 
3. What I find really interesting is that about half of the Thomas Paines on Twitter are progressives.
4. While the other half could be classified as conservatives of one stripe or another.
5. This squares perfectly with an argument I make in an article in this book on Jefferson and Paine--that Thomas Paine has long been claimed by people on both ends of the American political spectrum. upress.virginia.edu/title/4514
6. There are several reasons why I think that True Pundit fool has no legitimate claim on Paine's mantle. First, after the publication of Common Sense in 1776, Paine did not hide behind a pseudonym. He spoke truth to power and frequently suffered the consequences.
7. Second, Paine was indeed a master propagandist, but he never assumed his readers were so stupid that they wouldn't seek out other sources of information. Paine may have exaggerated at times and used rhetorical flourishes, but he was not one to just make stuff up.
8. Most importantly, Paine was skeptical about the established powers of his day, but he wasn't reflexively anti-government. For TP, the distinction was between a legitimate gov't that served the interests of ordinary citizens, & a corrupt gov't that served the already powerful.
9. To use Paine's visage and name to support the Presidency of a billionaire pseudo-populist does violence to the actual, historical Tom Paine--a man who proposed that all income above a certain amount should be confiscated and redistributed to the poor, elderly, and disabled.
10. And if you don't believe me, read Rights of Man Part 2, Chapter 5 here. gutenberg.org/files/3742/374…
11. Note, 20 shillings equals 1 pound.
12. And this is how he thought the money should be spent. Many historians have identified this as one of the first proposals for a welfare state. Note #8, a proposal for full employment.
