Their argument against BCI is that it will be used in government-mandated purity tests to forcibly rally their subjects. But that's a political objective, and one that you don't need mind control or ESP to achieve. We already have extremely effective social controls in the form of Twitter/X, daytime television and mass advertisement. What use is mind reading in a world where you already control what most people think?

Look at the Patriot Act, or any other military censor you choose. Same concept - we need to peek into people's private communications to determine if they're a terrorist! We need to scan their photo gallery to prevent them from abusing children! All are means to the same ends, the state wants to enforce absolute loyalty by sucking out any room for protest. Throughout history you can very easily ascertain that authoritarianism isn't restrained by a lack of mind control, for every life Oskar Schindler saved there's another 1,000 bodies buried in Babi Yar. The fact that ESP might have prevented those 1,000 lives from being saved somewhat glosses over the millions that were ostensibly genocided without using psychic domination.