I believe there was a fan-written short story about how the alien creature from The Thing didn't think it was doing anything wrong, and saw itself as a hero. All other races it encountered in the universe were exactly like The Thing, and they willingly assimilated with each other. Then, The Thing comes to earth and is confused as to why the resident "hive mind" isn't willing to assimilate. But then The Thing is horrified to realize that each human, plant, and animal is it's own individual, independent of the others, and doomed to die and go extinct. It tries to assimilate them in order to free them from death and to ensure their genes will live on forever.

That said, humans very much enjoy their individuality, hence the conflict, but I believe that The Thing thought it was helping, even if it wasn't actually doing so.