For those of us the parasites feed off, yes it is.
Che Guevara and Hitler thought they were doing something good. Eugenicists think they are doing something good. Neocon republican war mongers think they are doing something good. People who wiretap illegally think they are doing something good.
Intent is meaningless, what counts is action. We can never meaningfully judge intent, only results.
Actually, they do not. They provide a loss on the services they provide without market competition.
Scientists on the state teat in particular help crowd out private funding of research, and every dollar of state subsidy to science results in a greater loss of private funding due to crowding out.
The Myth of Science as a Public Good - h/t Nielsio
There is nothing to stop college professors from pursuing education as a career privately. And certainly demand for education is not created by the state.
Anyway, parasitism is parasitism. It’s obvious to everyone, of course except the people acting parsitic. They have all sorts of justifications for feeding on the life and labour of others.