Why act like an asshole and troll strangers when you can be yourself and piss off your enemies? Many of your so-called friends are people who you tolerate only because you can't currently replace them with better alternatives; or at least that's what you think.
In order to find better alternatives, you're gonna have to ditch your old friends. Ultimately, their incentive is to keep their relationship with you because they probably gain a lot from you without giving back things that you want. They'll do anything to stop you from replacing them with better friends. The other option is that they actually change their behavior to keep you as a friend, but that's not very likely to happen, because people hate change when it's expected from them to give more than they have already been giving.
Back to the point, there are many friendships that are based on roles, and you have to be in a character to keep them alive. That is, your friend Peter doesn't like you, he likes what you become when you're around him. And you become something else, because you know deep down that he wouldn't tolerate the real you, and you unconsciously conform to his unwritten social norms for fear of losing the relationship. But why would you value such a relationship? Usually, the false-self would make up all kinds of excuses and justifications - "He's very entertaining", "He lends me money", "He's my hero", "He's a great artist", etc. Forget all that bullshit and accept your feelings, instead. There may have been a time when Peter was very fun to hang out with, but things have changed.
If you compromise a relationship with the thought "I don't like hanging out with Peter but I need him for X Y and Z", you're setting yourself up for a master-slave relationship. If you don't like being around him, it will show in one way or another. Most likely it will be expressed in a passive-aggressive behavior. You will become Peter's slave because you use him as a means to X Y and Z, for the price of putting up with him. When you use people as a means to an end, those people become your masters that you emulate in order to get what you want.
Note: Some of my views on this issue have changed. More on that here: Virtue Vs Loneliness
