When you come across a conversation where absolutes are being discussed and someone presents an exception to the absolute how do you respond?

I have been in many a conversation where an exception to a rule is presented and people start getting all in a dither and combative over something that is surely more about their cognitive dissonance than the information at hand. I know it can be true of me.

I have seen people respond to exception/s as evidence that the absolute exists, for them: “That’s the exception that proves the rule.”

I have seen people think the absolute has no validity because of the presence of an exception. “That exception disproves the rule.”

Here is an innocuous example:

Dr. Wonderful says: “Smoking leads to death.”

Mr. Malevolent says: “No way! My aunt petunia has been smoking on her corncob pipe every day of her beautiful life all the way up until that bus killed her!”

How about you, does an exception to an absolute cause you to rethink the topic at hand, do you dismiss the exception, do you start digging into your own perceptions, or some other facinating thing?

Do you even know what I am talking about?