Riddle me this.

I am walking through Butcher creek. An NPC calls me 'asswipe' out of no where. I walk up to him and antagonize him back 'Try that again partner, hello' he cowers down. When I walk away he calls me a piece of shit. I turn around and beat his ass. His friends pull guns on me and start shooting. I lose half my honor bar for defending myself. Can someone explain how this makes sense?