whenever someone talks about "souls" they're obviously confused

I believe this, and I might as well explain why. Every concept that legitimately falls under the blanket term "souls" is wrong - and every other term that soul proponents attempt to include (such as consciousness, say) is strictly better described by words that do not carry a bunch of wrong baggage.

To my mind, attempting to talk about the introspective nature of consciousness (which is what I got as the gist of your post) by using the word soul and religious terminology is like trying to discuss the current state of American politics with someone who insists on calling the President "Fuhrer".