Jimi, hyperbole won't win the day; your "buddy" is a person who'd do the same to YOU if he didn't recognize you on a bike. If you want to be a social 'snake handler', don't blame the rest of us when you get bit.
If being at all popular is more important than what's right (which is NOT running down cyclists with a car), then WE don't wanna be friends with you. I have a co-worker, the only other person in my section, with whom I have always gotten along rather well; we have senses of humor that feed off each other. He's also a white supremacist, as well as a narcissist with borderline sociopathy (right & wrong for him are defined by what benefits him, even to the point of his marriage; when his wife was carrying son
#2 , she was hormonal & grouchy -- he was ready to LEAVE!). I continue to gt along with him because it makes the workday go better. But the day will come when we no longer work together, and I won't look back for a second.
I have cut off KIN who gave me haterade. My family was down & out a few years ago, I swallowed my pride & asked my mother for help; instead of saying yes or no, all she could do was grill me about why didn't I do this or that(none of which were options to us). We barely had a relationship after that; the last time I saw her before she passed in hospice was three days before. Even from that deathbed, she was giving me shat.
Saintly? Not necessary. But there ARE limits, and a friend of mine who professes to hate and wishes to target people on the road LIKE me, exceeds those limits.
With friends like THAT, you're better OFF friendless.