Somewhat more charitably…
Causal misattribution.
They both got cancer because they both eat meat with too much of some kind of carcinogenic toxin in it, because they are both poor and live in a polluted area or at least area with poor food standards.
That also correlates with the ignorance, but still an attempt to craft an explanation: never had the chance to get well educated, else they’d know cancer is not … contagious, broadly transmissable.
apftwb@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
“Why yes, I eat only home smoked meats and feed the smoked meat scraps to my dog. Why do you ask?”