There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.

Davis laments a cultural shift toward euphemism and moral relativism—“new words” that soften judgment and distribute blame until “everybody” is excused. Against this, she nostalgically prefers a world of clear moral legibility: heroes and villains who can be openly praised or condemned. The line suggests that older, more archetypal storytelling (and perhaps older public discourse) carried a bracing honesty—“a truth”—that contemporary “slick credulity” cannot reach. The phrase implies that modern sophistication can become a kind of gullibility: polished language and fashionable explanations may conceal rather than clarify character and responsibility.