yuppie and freak

depends on the context, I guess!

thanks for your suggestions!

about the context: it's about some environmentalists being described as though they were "langhaarige Bombenläger" and some company officials being characterized by the serious the impression they make because they have a suit and a haircut

yuppie and freak sounds kind of harsh to me... my intention is not to be offensive in using these stereotypes.

if anyone has any ideas - that would be great!

How about young professional and hippie??

thanks, joe.

just now, i like the sound and feel of "business men and flower children" :-)

freak is perfect! Ok, how about non-conformist, nature child, liberal ;-)
radical

vs

conformist/ business man

OK, those are pretty tame.
Mostly I just wanted to advise caustion regarding the word "freak" -- I believe its use is very different in the two languages:
German: somebody who is anti-establishment, unconventional to a high degree, etc.
English: can mean somebody with a pathological abnormality (LEO: Missgeburt); makes me think of the "freak shows" that were presented at circuses some decades ago. Is also used with more hamless connotations (LEO: eigenartiger Mensch (coll.)) but as far as I know, never as "hippie," "long-hair", "anarchist," "flower child" etc.
@Anke: "company officials being characterized by the serious the impression they make because they have a suit and a haircut"
--> such a person is sometimes referred to as a "suit"
"tree-hugger" is an expression used to denigrate environmentalist
"The suits and the tree huggers" -- not catchy, but don't know if catchy is what's needed?

Once again, several positings came in while I was still typing...
"business men and flower children" is nice -- emphasizes the "stereotyping" view that it's grown-ups vs. kids.

What is the native speakers' opinion on "yeti" for langhaariger Bombenleger?

...sorry, didn't even get my name typed in that time...

@Doris: To me, "yeti" has connotations of big, hairy, maybe oafish, but not really anti-establishment/anarchist/"trouble-maker," which is what "Bombenleger" makes me think of.

just kidding

I remember the word yeti being used when some guy fancied one of my friends, we described him as a long-haired yeti, i.e. unwashed and ugly! SO maybe not
I think tree-hugger and bunny-hugger are quite popular as alternatives to hippie, but possibly more negative. I also remember someone being described on BBC radio 2 as belonging to the knit-your-own sandles brigade, which I quite liked, but not appropriate for your purpose

I know "langhaariger Bombenleger" as an affectionate name for heavy-metal fans...
I second Maria: "suit" was the fist thing that came to mind for "Anzugtraeger".

Good ol' google
Bunny hugger 56500 (interestingly, one of these was for a forum for veggies/vegans and was the name one of the women had chosen for herself)
Tree hugger 2430000

@Anke: Ohne jetzt Deine Quelle zu kennen - langhaariger Bombenleger ist IMO etwas ganz anderes als ein Hippie. Die Konnotation des Umweltschützers entgeht mir dabei auch.
Es gibt sicherlich Umweltschützer, die langhaarige Bombenleger sind, aber ich sehe keinen direkten Zusammenhang.
- Haben die Muttersprachler (englisch) da vielleicht noch einen Begriff, der nicht so auf den Umweltaspekt zielt? Für mich klingt "Yeti" gut, habe aber keine Ahnung, wie das für einen Muttersprachler klingt.

Comment on the word freak - it is used in a lot of different ways in Englsih. Its use in hip-hop poetry and pop in general will give all non-native speakers a good grip on its current usage.

Freak Slang.
1. A drug user or addict: a speed freak.
2. An eccentric or nonconformist person, especially a member of a counterculture.
3. An enthusiast: rock music freaks.

I really like the use of "suit" in this way -- "Who's the suit over there?" -- meaning, who's the stuffy guy in the suit?
Hippie, on the other hand, is pretty dated but fully understood. Maybe "anarchist"? There may be other BE options of which I'm unaware!

eine etwas mildere Formulierung waere auch "white collars" vs "tree-huggers"

i like alliteration!

@joe: "as belonging to the knit-your-own sandles brigade".
"Knit your own muesli" isn't it? :)

Actually, "muesli-knitting/knitter" can be used as an insult, but they are typically peaceable and very far from bomb-throwing, and not necessarily at all dirty, long-haired or young. I think that goes too for several of the other types suggested, who seem to me very far from "Bombenleger".

@oreg: "I know 'langhaariger Bombenleger' as an affectionate name for heavy-metal fans..."
That would suggest "headbanger" to me. But they're nothing to do with environmentalism or explicitly political protest. And I don't think "longhaired
headbangers" are generally talked or complained about as a group (if they still exist at all, that is).

"Longhaired layabout" might be a possibility. That would typically imply: idle, lazy, aimless, unserious, selfish, uncouth ... though not necessarily dangerous or even threatening. Or maybe "Yobs": stereotypically many of the same characteristics as layabouts, but also threatening.

Aren't yuppies (young upwardly mobile professionals) thought as representative more of self-interestedness, ambition, and materialism than of corporate seriousness?

...doddering professors, undergrads in
Gucci shades, and long-haired lefties avoiding all that’s mass produced...

(Found 814 Google hits for long-haired lefties)

Definitely "suits" for "Anzugträger". I also like the sound of "long-haired layabouts" (also for the alliteration), though that lacks the anarchistic meaning. As Iain said, layabouts are mainly only perceived as idle and lacking any ambition to work.

"Yobs" are just uncouth, and maybe violent, but are not perceived to be following any ideology as implied by "langhaarige Bombenleger". "yobs" would better describe skinheads or similar mindless, if anything right-wing, thugs. (kurzhaarige Bombenleger...).

And "yuppies" are a phenomenon of the eighties - selfish, materialistic, and ambitious as Iain also said. So not a positive or neutral image.

"long-haired layabouts who can't be coerced into wearing shirts and ties, never
mind a suit; and of course to swap Power Techniques like ..."

407 Googles using quotes

"in The Future, long haired anarchists will be joined by White-haired suburbanite dads in their 40s."

224 Google hits using quotes

"... a bunch of long-haired, tie-died, Birkenstock-footed lefties and Oshkosh
B goshed cow-milkers,"

Just found some more examples.

"long-haired lefties", of course! :) "Lefties" is at once so complacently vague and sneering. For the people who use it, it could cover almost anywhere in a large band of the spectrum: social workers, muesli-weavers, environmentalists, strikers, demonstrators of all sorts, anarchists, poll-tax rioters, .....

@Iain. Glad you like it. I also like the way it alliterates as well as covering virtually all possibilities :-)

@ maria e. - you said a "freak" is "as far as I know, never as "hippie," "long-hair", "anarchist," "flower child" etc.

- actually it is definitely used in this context; google the phrase "hippie freaks"... also the classic "fabulous furry freak brothers". the connotations are mainly related to the above groups' propensities to get high on drugs... (so actually "anarchist" doesn't really belong).

@ doris etc. - yeti? no, not to me. a yeti is only a mythical ape-like creature that suposedly lives in the himalayas. similar to the american "sasquatch". maybe someone might use it as an insult, but i've never heard it.

@ all - "suits" is good. a more recent one is "droids". "hippies" is dated but still fine, but "flower children" is getting passé. "tree-huggers" are often of the hippie type, but not necessarily, they might also be fitness-freaks for example (in this case "freak" means overly-enthusiastic).

Surely Bombenleger is deliberately meant to evoke the radical leftists of the 1960s, especially in the student movement in Europe? If so, Helmi with 'bomb throwers' and Mary with 'anarchists' seem to be the closest so far, or 'radicals' would be another slightly milder option.

The other possible Bombenleger I can think of might be modern ultra-right-wingers, neo-Nazis, but don't they usually have shaved heads, not long hair? And the same goes for modern terrorists, who may have beards but otherwise usually seem to try to dress neatly and blend in with their community.

Bombenleger as fans of heavy metal, headbangers, could be plausible, but then wouldn't they be more punk than long-haired? Though if we were talking about Deadheads or something a couple of decades back -- sorry, not sure I know exactly where the boundary between hard rock and heavy metal is/was.

But ahyway, all the other stereotypes mentioned don't necessarily have anything to do with violence at all. Lefties, strikers, environmentalists, tree huggers, etc. are more likely to be pacifists. Hippies, flower children, drug freaks, etc. were often largely apolitical, interested more in drugs and sex. And while layabouts, bums, dropouts, street people, etc. may have long hair and scruffy clothes -- again, none of that has anything to do with bombs.

PS @Doris: Yeti? Is that BE slang? Never heard of it in any sense other than abominable snowman (the probably mythical creature with the big footprints).

People referred to as "langhaarige Bombenleger" couldn't be further away from actually throwing bombs. On the contrary, they are usually very peaceful people. The main point here is "langhaarig" while "Bombenleger" is mainly hinting at their attitude which irritates the average bourgeois. It's poking fun at the bourgeois who tend to overreact when confronted with people who are different...

"Langhaariger Bombenleger" is an ironic if *affectionate* attribution.

@hm-us: Being one myself, I have to say that oreg's interpretation of "langhaariger Bombenleger" hits the nail on the head ... at least I hope so ;-)

The Loop by Nicholas Evans

The day after the meeting, Wolves of the Earth had dispatched a team of activists to Hope to conduct a door-to-door survey. (...) He called them a "bunch of longhair commie terrorists" (...)

I just stumbled across this expression yesterday. And I think it's quite to the point.

@Jeff: I just meant I've never heard "freak" on its own used in that sense.
"Peace freak," maybe, the "Freak Brothers," sure.
What I mean is, if you described someone (who was not visible and about whom nothing was known) to your listener by saying "He's a freak" I don't think it would carry the hippie/anarchist/longhair connotations that it does in Germany.
If you said "He's a hippie" that would convey a cetain picture... Would anyone say "He's a hippie freak"? Sounds like someone who is crazy about hippies.

in the UK, they also have "(hippie) travellers", "hunt saboteurs" (rather than bomb-throwers, where the association might be more IRA than hippie) or "veggie punks" - the latter creation might actually have been home made and was used to refer to the 24-hole doc martens, leather jacket wearers with dreadlocks and hand-knittet jumpers.

Come to think of it, what might the hunt saboteurs be sabotaging these days now that fox-hunting has been banned?