What's the minimum level of fame needed to avoid being cancelled?

The idea of 'cancelling' is public relations spin to shield people who did shitty things from accountability. A few years ago people were trying to hold people like Louis CK, Harvey Weinstein, and Kevin Spacey accountable for hurting people. Their fixers pitched it to the media as an irrational mob trying to cancel anyone who doesn't agree with them. When people are like 'They tried to cancel Baby Yoda!' after there was a mild reaction to a plotpoint in the Mandalorian tv show, they're falling prey to this manipulation of public opinion. A lot of minor celebrities claim to be 'cancelled' in order to appear counter-culture, but usually they're inflating false information about themselves to make it appear like they're a target of an irrational mob, or they're trying to cover for true information about them. Think of the number of people who have claimed to have been cancelled in their Netflix specials, or the number of people who have been confirmed to have abused their partners and still get to come back for the next Marvel or DC movie. The reaction against 'cancelling' was so much greater than the reaction against abuse because people were convinced they could be cancelled at any moment for any reason, and it's made online discourse immeasurably worse.

Exactly, it's only cancelled if they've been made commercially nonviable - and in a corporate/political landscape that is openly fascistic, that is a much blurrier line. Like when Ben Kissel got taken off Last Podcast, he has been pretty much fully cancelled. Full stop, career over. I just wish it was always so cut and dried.

I think for that effect, you just need to be political or controversial in such a way that you tap into the polarization that afflicts our society. In that case, provided your transgressions are not ones that your fans' 'team' cares about, or are ones that the opposing team cares more about, then you are guaranteed to have those fans continue to support you. With any luck you can portray yourself as a victim of the enemy team, and therefore be a hero to your fans' team.

The only people who can avoid being cancelled are the ones with no fame. If you have become famous, it can always be taken away.

Look at Mother Teresa, arguably one of the most famous people during her life.

After she died? It came out that she was in fact a horrible human being, and now she's largely forgotten.

There is no level of fame that insulates you, only a lack of fame.