Why?

If there's anything we all believe in, it's cause and effect.  An effect is easy to spot, but identifying the cause can be tricky, leading to massive conspiracy theories, literal witch hunts, and actual lynchings.  Determination of cause is theoretical, which can be dead wrong--as in the Morton case, currently sullying the legal annals of Williamson County.  As when old-time biblical scholars estimated the beginnings of us all from the scriptural begats.  As when Jews were blamed for Middle Ages ills, as when all blacks were suspect for STDs, as when mothers were held responsible for any and all problems their children developed (and still are).

Yes, we all seek immediate causes.  Thus Friend P's mother blamed her aging husband's failing health on a recently-installed defibrillator, just as Fiorella's father blamed his shingles attack on getting his arm bent back too far as he entered the senior van the day before.

Just as Fiorella blamed the mediocre haddock last night on the fact that she'd frozen it for a week.  An hour after dinner, it struck her that she hadn't breaded it.