Thanks Doc. Here's an English lesson, free. The phrase "brain turning to mush" is an idiom that means someone is having difficulty thinking clearly. Soft and mush are synonyms. That means they mean the same thing or similar. The dude said my take was soft. In that context, they suggested that my emotions were clouding my judgement. Using the same word as him in the retort was intended to be mocking. That means I flipped his condescending comment with my own flavor of condescending.