"Can help but be involved" or "can't help but be involved"?

Question

And at this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved.

Shouldn't it be cannot help but be involved? Is this a typo?

Answer 1

The key lies in the "I don't think". The author expresses the negation of an opinion. For example,

I don't think there is a cat in the box.

means that my belief is that "there is not a cat in the box." Similarly

I don't think you can help but be involved.

means that the author's belief is that "you cannot help but be involved" - as you correctly interpret. To understand an expressed negation of an opinion, you need to move the negation ("not") from the reporting verb ("think") into the opinion itself.

Answer 2

Please note that this may be far-fetched.

The key of understanding that sentence is looking out for the number of negations (negatives).

I don't think you can help but be involved.

Here, 'don't' is clearly a negation. Also, in this kind of usage, 'but' is also a negation.

Now, this is just a theory, and I cannot prove it.

In mathematics, two negations will yield a positive outcome. Here, the verb is 'can'. When the author says, 'I don't think you can', it simply means you 'cannot'. But then, he adds another negation to 'cannot', and that again makes it 'can'.

So to rephrase the sentence, for your better understanding,

"..And at this crucial time in our lives , when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival , I think you have to be involved."

Note: 'have' is not a substitute for 'can', but I've used only for the purpose of making the sentence easier to comprehend.