[romaaeterna]

Well, in some cases we know that they do.

Dementia is linked to diabetes. And diabetes risk is increased for African-Americans. And African-Americans live in high-pollution urban areas for entirely historical reasons.

So some amount of the causation here does go in the way opposite to what a person might naively suspect.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Dementia is linked to diabetes. And diabetes risk is increased for African-Americans. And African-Americans live in high-pollution urban areas for entirely historical reasons

A is correlated with B. B is causally correlated with C, i.e. C causes B. (C is correlated with D.) Hence C causes A.

Let’s replace. Flowers are correlated with bees. Bees are caused by hives. (Hives are correlated with trees.) Hence, hives cause flowers.

Loosely, yes. Formally, no.

[romaaeterna]

We know that diabetes causes some amount of dementia and that flowers cause no amount of bees. And so on. Your example is specious, and obviously so.

[jvanderbot]

Outlive (book) talks extensively about dementia risk and Alzheimer's as "type 3 diabetes".