Amusing, confusing Blogland

I have been a lurker in quite a few author and reader blogs (particularly of the romance genre) for quite a while and mostly I refrain from commenting except for one or two blogs.
Recently, reading blogs have become much like watching a drama series what with all the smearing and swearing going on! It is highly amusing and sometimes even had me laughing out loud.
Somehow, it is also quite sad. I mean, to me, blogging is just a way to express my opinions, so whoever who chanced upon my blog could just go away if they don't like my opinions and never come back. The end of story right?
Nope. Wrong. Apparently, in Blogland, some bloggers seemed to take offense over opinions by other bloggers and go all out to attack the bloggers who offended them.
I have tried to imagine how I would react if I am one of those who felt offended and still I could not understand their defensive over-reactions.
If some blogger had written something not so pleasant about me, I would have taken it in my stride to either ignore it (if it is baseless) or respond with the intention of finding out the reason behind the negative post entry about me.
As a professional journalist trained to always be careful of what I write, I would never launch into a huge diatribe against another blogger over some negative remarks about me.
It is unprofessional, distasteful and it will only serve to make me look bad in the end.
Reading these unprofessional attacks left a really bad taste in my mouth and it greatly reminded me of the world of politics.
All I ask is that what do they get out of this in the end? Politicians do it because they want to win the coveted seat / position they are after. But bloggers? What do they get?
I don't get anything from blogging except to relieve some of my working stress so even if someone do write bad stuffs about me in their blogs, so be it. Why should I bother anyway? So what if that blogger has a million readers and it may tarnish my name? If I am true to myself and confident with what I do, why should I bother about it at all?
Oh well, I guess bitchiness exists everywhere, even in Blogland. I am not really affected by it all but darn, it really makes for some entertaining read!