This article takes an international perspective on adult learning and disinformation, exploring how they have recast the global landscape. In particular, we address former president Trump's naming of certain Caribbean and African nations as "shithole countries," as well as other related experiences, and work to locate these comments within a neocolonial, racist episteme--what we term the "systemic imperialist syndrome." Finally, this article discusses how critical media literacy (CML) can be leveraged for adult learning, and argues that this involves a mindset change that has the potential to "de-imperialize" the minds of imperialists who themselves are colonized in/by their hatred.