Well the good news is you know that you don't want to live in an area that is like the one you described. It definitely sounds like you're happier in a more progressive area with people who's interests are a bit more diverse and are more than surface deep. Hang in there and get out of there asap! Do you have any plans to move away?
Finishing my degree and then leaving immediately. If I'm dating someone I will drag them the hell away from there. I will carry their entire life's possessions if it can get me back to a state where I can get up, get in my car and drive to an event where I can talk philosophy with a stranger I meet at a goddamn bar.
WARNING: Country girls love to latch onto hipster types like yourself who come through their local university in the hopes the hipster will take them away to the city, where within a few months they bail for some guy they met in their new busy city life. Been there, done that, seen it a bunch of times, too, watch for it.
I'd be worried, but my personality is so intolerable to most people that if you don't actually like me, you find me so terrible there's no way you could possibly spend more time with me then you have too. Plus, I have too much of a soft spot for jersey girls.
Yea, I'm generally the same way and, in my experience, that just attracts them even more. The less you care, the courser and less PC you are, the less you get all chivalrous, the more determined they get. If you wanna chase them away, be a gentleman.